Guarded by police officers
“Novaya Gazeta”: Navalny’s body lies in Salekhard
February 18, 2024, 12:10 p.m
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Following news of the death of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, his body appears to have disappeared. His mother and his lawyers receive contradictory information. An informant now tells Novaya Gazeta that the body is in a hospital in Salekhard.
According to a media report, the body of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who died in Russian custody on Friday, 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 newspaper Novaya Gazeta Europa reported, citing its own informants. In addition, the dead man’s body is said to have bruises.
There is currently no confirmation of this information. Navalny’s relatives have not yet been given access to his body. Navalny’s mother, who traveled to Charp in northern Russia, 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. Accordingly, Navalny was initially taken to the city of Labytnangi after his sudden death early on Friday afternoon local time, but was transferred to the Salekhard District Clinical Hospital on Friday evening. Normally, the bodies of people who died in prison would be taken directly to the Forensic Medicine Office on Glazkova Street, the source said. “In this case, she was taken to the clinical hospital for some reason,” the newspaper quoted the emergency services worker as saying.
Bruises
Navalny was taken to the morgue and was being guarded there by two police officers. According to the emergency services worker, the bruises show that Navalny had convulsions before his death and was being held by prison camp employees. A bruise on the chest is also an indication that resuscitation attempts have actually been made. According to the newspaper report, the informant did not see Navalny himself, but was only informed about his condition by colleagues.
According to the source, Navalny’s death was classified as “not criminal in nature.” This is an official designation that indicates that no firearms were used in a death. The hospital said the hospital pathologist was forbidden from carrying out an autopsy.
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.
Salekhard is the capital of the Yamalo-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. Navalny was transferred there in December. The prison is considered one of the toughest in the country.