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Alexej Navalny: "On the bed, with a Bible in hand"
Photo: Uncredited / dpa
The imprisoned Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny has announced that he has started a hunger strike.
He wants to get his medical treatment in this way.
Navalny has been complaining of severe pain in his back for several days, which has spread to his legs.
However, he has so far been denied medical treatment, say his lawyers.
“I went on a hunger strike to demand that the law be obeyed and that the doctor I want to see can come to me.
So I'm lying there hungry, but for the time being with two legs, ”said a post on Nawalny's Instagram profile on Wednesday.
During the detention, the account is not managed by himself, but by employees and confidants.
In the penal colony IK-2 in the small town of Pokrov, 100 kilometers east of Moscow, where Navalny is imprisoned, he has so far only been allowed to receive visits from his two lawyers.
The Kremlin critic has been complaining of severe back pain for several days.
He also said that the pain would radiate to the legs.
In his right leg he had symptoms of paralysis and could no longer recur.
According to fellow campaigners, he had only received a few painkillers for the pain.
“Well, what should I do?” Reads Navalny's new post, which begins with the question of why inmates are on hunger strike.
Instead of receiving medical help, he is still tortured by sleep deprivation and is still woken up eight times a night, it is said.
The Kremlin critic is now lying on his bed with a Bible in his hand.
"With a Bible because it's the only book I've been able to get in the last three weeks."
"He can still walk alone"
Navalny had been classified as "at risk of escape" by the prison authorities, which is why his presence in the penal colony is constantly being checked.
He had already described this on Instagram after his arrival in the penal colony: »At night I wake up every hour to the fact that a man in a jacket is standing next to my bed.
He films me with the camera and says: '2.30 am, convicted Navalny.
Control according to the register of those at risk of fleeing.
Is in place ‹«.
After reports of Nawalny's poor health, members of a state commission on the human rights of detainees visited him while he was in custody.
Despite the complaints, they reported little cause for concern.
The opposition's leg hurts because he asked for a pain reliever, according to a report by the panel, from which a Russian newspaper quoted.
"He can still walk alone."
heb / ire
