Russian investigators refuse to release Navalny's body for two more weeks

Russian investigators have refused to release the body of opposition leader Alexei Navalny to his mother, warning her that the expert examination of the body will continue for a further 14 days.

Source: Russian media outlet The Insider, citing Navalny’s press secretary, Kira Yarmysh

Quote from Yarmysh: "The investigators told Alexei’s lawyers and mother they will not release the body. The body will be undergoing some ‘chemical examination’ for another 14 days."

Details: The investigators have been hiding Navalny’s body for almost three days. Staff at the penal colony initially told his mother, Lyudmila, that the body was in a morgue in the Russian city of Salehard. At the morgue she was told they did not have the body.

The current location of the body is unknown.

Background:

• On the afternoon of 16 February, Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service reported the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny at Correctional Facility No. 3 in Kharp, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, in northwestern Siberia.
• Alexei Navalny had been imprisoned since early 2021. The Moscow City Court sentenced him to 19 years in prison in a special-regime colony for "extremism" in August 2023.
• In December, the opposition leader was transferred to Correctional Facility No. 3, known as Polyarnyi Volk (Polar Wolf), which is located in Kharp in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Siberia.

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