Three days after the death of Russia's opposition head, imprisoned activist Alexei Navalny, his spokeswoman Kira Yermish said today (Monday) that Navalny's mother and his lawyers were not allowed to enter the morgue in the city of Salekhard, where his body was apparently taken.
According to Yermish's statement, Lyudmila Navalny traveled to the remote penal colony in Salekhard the day after her son's death, but was not allowed to receive her son's body. The morgue staff refused to indicate where the body was, and one of her lawyers was even pushed out of the compound.
According to the mother, investigators told her that the cause of Navalny's death has not yet been determined, and according to them the investigation will continue - and the body will not be transferred to the family until the circumstances are clarified.
"They say that it is not known how long the investigation will last, and that the cause of death has not yet been determined," Yermish stated. "Obviously they are lying, trying to gain time and not even trying to hide it."
According to independent Russian media outlet Novaya Gazeta, Lyudmila said she saw him "alive, healthy, and cheerful" during a visit to the penal colony just four days before his death.
Navalny was poisoned during a plane flight in Russia in 2020 and treated in Germany. German doctors said he had been poisoned by a deadly nerve agent produced in Russia. Various sources consequently published a report exposing the FSB agents behind Navalny's attempted murder.
Upon his return to Russia, the activist was immediately detained and following separate trials, sentenced to a maximum security prison in August, 2023 on extremism charges for creating the Anti-Corruption Foundation, whose goal was to fight Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime.
