WARSAW, POLAND– Alexei Navalny’s body was handed over to his mother, announced this Saturday by the spokesperson for the Russian opponent who died more than a week ago in an Arctic prison.
“Alexei’s body was delivered to his mother. We thank those who asked for it with us,” the spokesperson said on the social network Count Yarmishadding that he did not know if the authorities will give their permission for the dissident’s funeral to be “as the family wishes them and as Alexei deserves them.”
Ivan Zhdanov, director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, made the announcement on his Telegram account and thanked “everyone” who had asked Russian authorities to return Navalny’s body to his mother.
Previously, Navalny’s widow accused President Vladimir Putin of mocking Christianity by trying to force the politician’s mother to accept a secret funeral for her son, who died in a penal colony.
In a video published on Saturday, Yulia Navalnaya indicated that the mother of Alexei Navalnywas being “literally tortured” by the authorities, who had threatened to bury him in the Arctic prison.
“Give us my husband’s body,” she said. “They tortured him while he was alive and they continue to torture him when he is dead. They make fun of the remains of the dead.”
Alexéi Navalni, who was the best-known opposition politician in Russia, died unexpectedly on February 16 in the penal colony at the age of 47. His death led hundreds of Russians to makeshift monuments in his memory, where they laid candles and flowers.
Authorities have detained dozens of people in their attempt to suppress any show of sympathy for Putin’s bitterest enemy on the eve of a presidential election that he will almost certainly win.
On social media, Russians claim that authorities did not want to return Navalny to his family for fear of public displays of support.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the accusations against Putin as “absolutely baseless and insolent.”
Source: With information from AFP / AP
