According to a media report, the body of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who died in custody, is being kept in the district hospital in the city of Salekhard in the far north of Siberia. An autopsy had not yet taken place, at least as of Saturday, the Kremlin-critical Novaya Gazeta Europa reported on Sunday, citing its own informants. In addition, the dead man’s body is said to have bruises.
There was initially no official confirmation of this information. According to their own statements, Navalny’s relatives have not yet been given access to the 47-year-old’s body.
Salekhard is the capital of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The “Polar Wolf” prison camp, where Navalny died, is about 50 kilometers northwest of it as the crow flies – already beyond the Arctic Circle.
According to Russian authorities, Navalny, who was physically weakened after many days in repeated solitary confinement, collapsed on Friday while walking in the prison camp in freezing temperatures. According to the prison service, attempts at resuscitation were unsuccessful.
Human rights activists accuse the Russian power apparatus of murder. The prominent anti-corruption campaigner’s employees also assumed that Navalny was deliberately killed.
Navalny’s mother has so far tried in vain to pick up her dead son. The body was not handed over to her either in the penal colony or in Salekhard.
Novaya Gazeta quotes an anonymous employee of the emergency service. According to him, the bruises indicate that Navalny had convulsions before his death and was held by prison camp employees. A bruise on the chest is also an indication that resuscitation attempts have actually been made. However, the newspaper report shows that the informant himself did not see Navalny after his death, but was only informed about his condition by colleagues.
