Aleksei A. Navalny’s political allies on Saturday confirmed his demise, saying that his mom had obtained an official notification of it.
Kira Yarmysh, Mr. Navalny’s spokeswoman, stated in a press release on X that Russian investigators had transferred Mr. Navalny’s physique from a penal colony within the Arctic to the close by city of Salekhard, the place it’s being examined.
“We demand for Aleksei Navalny’s physique to be launched to his household instantly,” Ms. Yarmysh stated in her assertion.
Ms. Yarmysh is a member of a staff of Mr. Navalny’s allies. Working from exterior Russia, they continued to hold out his work after his poisoning in 2020 and his subsequent imprisonment, publishing his statements and organizing political occasions.
Mr. Navalny’s mom arrived on Saturday morning on the penal colony within the Kharp settlement, Ms. Yarmysh stated in a video assertion. They needed to wait for 2 hours earlier than a jail official got here out to say that Mr. Navalny’s physique was transferred to Salekhard.
Legal professionals and rights teams stated the method of retrieving Mr. Navalny’s physique would possibly take a number of days.
Jail authorities stated Mr. Navalny fell unconscious and died after a stroll on the penal colony above the Arctic Circle, the place he was transferred to on the finish of December.
Of their assertion about his demise, Russian jail authorities stated that its causes have been “being decided.” Native investigators stated that they launched a “procedural test” into Mr. Navalny’s demise. They stated that “a set of investigative and operative measures is being carried out geared toward establishing all circumstances of the incident.”