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Navalny’s household had stated that Russian authorities had been withholding his physique, after he died at a penal colony final week.
The physique of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny has been handed over to his mom, his spokesperson and an aide have stated.
“Alexei’s physique was given to his mom. Thanks to everyone who demanded this with us,” Navalny spokesperson Kira Yarmysh stated on X on Saturday.
The small print of his funeral preparations are but to be decided, Yarmysh stated, and it’s unclear whether or not authorities will intervene.
Ivan Zhdanov, the director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Basis, additionally confirmed the information on his Telegram account, and thanked “everybody” who had referred to as on Russian authorities to return the physique.
“Thanks very a lot. Because of everybody who wrote and recorded video messages. You all did what you wanted to do. Thanks. Alexei Navalny’s physique has been given to his mom,” Zhdanov wrote.
Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, had earlier demanded the discharge of his physique for burial, accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of mocking Orthodox Christian values and “torturing” his corpse.
“You tortured him alive, and now you retain torturing him lifeless. You mock the stays of the lifeless,” she stated in a video message to Putin.
Navalny, a 47-year-old extensively seen as probably the most outstanding opposition voice in Russia, died on February 16 in a maximum-security Arctic penal colony whereas serving a 19-year sentence on fees of “extremism”.
Many world leaders, together with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine and US President Joe Biden, denounced Navalny’s dying, saying that it was clear that Russia was accountable for his dying, with many particularly blaming the Russian president.
Nevertheless, Russia has denied any duty, saying that he had died of pure causes. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov referred to as the allegations “completely unfounded, insolent accusations in regards to the head of the Russian state”.
Navalny’s mom, Lyudmila Navalnaya, had stated Russian investigators had been pressuring her to bury her son in “secret” at a non-public ceremony with out mourners. She is at the moment nonetheless within the Arctic area, Yarmysh stated, having travelled there to demand the discharge of her son’s physique.
Navalny’s aides stated the authorities had threatened to bury him within the jail colony the place he died until his household agreed to their situations.
“They need to take me to the far finish of the cemetery to a contemporary grave and say: ‘Right here lies your son’,” his mom stated in a video posted on YouTube on Thursday. “I’m not agreeing to that.”
