When the shock in Russia - and in the Western world - does not subside over the surprise death in prison of prominent opposition leader Alexei Navalny last Friday, Russian investigators informed his family that they cannot hand over his body for another 14 days. due to a "chemical examination".
This was reported by the collaborators of someone who was one of the greatest enemies of President Vladimir Putin.
While doubts and speculation grow about the reasons for the death of Navanly, 47, and when the Kremlin rejects the accusations that point to the Russian government as responsible, the opponent's mother demanded this Tuesday from the president, in a harsh message recorded on video, to give him his son's body "so he can bury it as God commands."
"I am addressing you, Vladimir Putin. The solution to this matter depends only on you. Let me see my son once and for all!" said Liudmila Navalnaya, in a video uploaded to YouTube by Navalny's team.
"I demand that Alexei's body be handed over to me immediately so that I can bury him as God intended," he added.
"It is the fifth day that I have not been able to see him, they have not given me his body and they have not even told me where he is," he denounced.
Flowers and messages at a tribute to the opposition Alexei Navalny, in front of the headquarters of the Russian intelligence headquarters (FSB) in Moscow.
Photo: AFP
The woman highlighted that the video was recorded in front of the "Polar Wolf" prison in the Arctic town of Jarp where the opponent, imprisoned since 2021 after a conviction for "extremist," suddenly died on Friday.
Navalny had been imprisoned since returning from Germany, where in 2020 he recovered from a mysterious poisoning of which he accused the Kremlin.
The Russian government rejected all allegations, although German investigators confirmed that the opposition politician had been poisoned with Novichok, a neurotoxic substance used in Soviet times against the regime's enemies.
formal complaint
Navalny's team published on Telegram the letter addressed to the Presidential Administration and signed in the handwriting of Liudmila Naválnaya.
In the text, she denounces that the Investigative Committee of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District
does not allow her access to her son's body
.
The 69-year-old mother arrived in that inhospitable part of Russia on Saturday, but both prison officials and morgue employees refused to respond to her requests.
She has stopped short of accusing Putin of ordering the murder of her son, something that the opponent's widow, Alexei Navalny, did, who took up the baton of the fight against the Kremlin on Monday.
Government spokesman Dmitri Peskov condemned the claims on Tuesday.
The Siberian prison to which Navalny had been transferred in December.
Photo: AP
"I don't give a damn how the murderer's press secretary comments on my words. Return Alexei's body and let him be buried with dignity, don't stop people from saying goodbye to him," the widow said.
He added: "And I really ask all journalists who can still ask questions: don't ask about me, ask about Alexei."
Navalny's co-religionists accuse the Russian authorities of refusing to hand over the body to "erase the traces" of the crime.
"Investigators told Alexei's lawyers and mother that they will not give them the body, as they need another 14 days to perform a chemical examination," the spokesman for the deceased opponent, Kira Yarmish, wrote on the social network X.
According to Yarmish, this is a "lie" and a "mockery" and the investigators do not hand over the body to
"hide" possible evidence of
Navalny's murder.
he widow of the opponent - who investigated and denounced official corruption and called for a series of marches against the government since 2017 - Navalny, Yulia, stated this Tuesday that she will continue her husband's fight against the Kremlin.
According to OVD-Info, an organization that protects the rights of detainees, almost 70,000 people have already signed a popular petition for the authorities to hand over the body to the family.
Source: EFE
C.B.