Russian opponent Alexei Navalny, who has been in prison for two years, said he was suffering from flu-like symptoms and deprived of adequate access to treatment, with his supporters denouncing a Kremlin attempt to slowly "kill" him.
From his cell, Navalny was supposed to participate in three videoconference hearings yesterday, concerning complaints against the restrictions made against him by the prison administration.
He spoke before the judge and asked for the postponement of these three hearings on health grounds, which he obtained, confirmed his spokeswoman Kira Iarmych.
Navalny, 46, said he had to fight "a fierce fight" to obtain "basic medicines" and was refused admission to the medical unit of his prison, located 200km from Moscow.
"It took me four days to get a little more hot water," he said, quoted by his team as saying he had "a fever."
He also indicated that the prison administration forced his cellmate to commute back and forth between the prison's medical unit, which was hit by a flu epidemic, and their cell.
Two days ago, a group of Russian doctors addressed an open letter to President Vladimir Putin asking that the opponent receive adequate treatment and that the abuses against him be put to an end.
The text of the letter was posted on Facebook by one of the doctors, Aleksandr Vanyukov.
"Navalny's detention conditions, as well as his appearance, make us very concerned for his life and health", reads the open letter, signed so far by 30 doctors, and which claims that prison guards do not deliver the medicines prepared for the dissident.
"Medically - the letter continues - there is no doubt that Alexey is not receiving sufficient treatment, and being held in punitive isolation is absolutely contraindicated in his condition. We demand that the abuse against Alexey Navalny be stopped, we demand that he is no longer sent to punitive solitary confinement and also that he is allowed to be examined by civilian doctors and that he is admitted to a civilian hospital for the examinations and treatments that should be required".
