The body of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was reportedly found this weekend with “marks of bruising,” but government officials said Saturday that Navalny died of “sudden death syndrome.” she told her mother.
Officials at the prison where Mr. Navalny died told his mother that his body could not be released until the investigation was complete. The body was reportedly sent to a nearby morgue.
An anonymous paramedic who claimed to work at the morgue told independent news outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe that the bruises were consistent with being pressed down during a seizure.
“Usually the bodies of people who die in prison are taken directly to the Forensic Medicine Department on Glaskova Street, but in this case for some reason they were taken to the clinical hospital,” an anonymous paramedic told the publication.
Navalny seen grinning in court video the day before his death
Government officials told Alexei Navalny’s mother on Saturday that the Russian opposition leader died of “sudden death syndrome.”
Meanwhile, world leaders and Navalny’s own spokesperson declared that he was actually killed by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Prison officials said Navalny, 47, lost consciousness on Friday and died shortly after. He was serving a 30-year sentence in a penal colony.
Ivan Zhdanov, chairman of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, announced on social media: “When Alexei’s lawyer and mother arrived in the colony this morning, they were told that Navalny’s cause of death was sudden death syndrome.” .
Sudden death syndrome is a broad medical term and is not an official condition or diagnosis. Rather, it refers to a wide range of scenarios that lead to sudden and unexpected death.
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World leaders and Mr. Navalny’s own spokesmen declared that the Russian opposition leader had been killed by the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Pavel Bednyakov, Sputnik, Kremlin pool photo, via AP)
Navalny’s press secretary, Kira Yarmysh, said his body remains in the hands of the government and his family is seeking its release.
“Alexei Navalny was killed. According to the official message to Alexei’s mother, his death occurred at 2:17 pm local time on February 16,” Yarmysh said. “Colonial officials said Mr. Navalny’s body is currently in Salekhard.”
“It was picked up by IC investigators. They are currently conducting an ‘investigation’ against him,” the spokesperson said. “We demand that the body of Alexei Navalny be immediately handed over to his family.”
After Navalny’s death, Biden says there is “no doubt” that “Putin and his thugs” were behind it.
Navalny has previously organized anti-government demonstrations and ran for office advocating reforms against what he calls corruption in Russia. He was the victim of an assassination attempt in 2020 and was poisoned by Novichok, a suspected nerve agent.
Navalny has previously organized anti-government demonstrations and ran for office advocating reforms against what he calls corruption in Russia. (AP/Pavel Golovkin)
president biden “We don’t know exactly what happened, but there is no doubt that Mr. Navalny’s death was the result of the actions of President Putin and his thugs,” he told reporters at the White House on Friday. ” he said.
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken Navalny’s “death in a Russian prison and the obsession and fear of one man only underscore the weakness and corruption at the heart of the system President Putin has built,” he said.
Reuters contributed to this report
