Alexei Navalny's mother said she saw her son's body — and that officials are trying to force her to hold a private burial ceremony without mourners.
In a video posted on YouTube, Lyudmila Navalnaya said that officials told her that “time is not on your side” and that this indicated that her son’s body was “decomposed.”
She said officials threatened to “do something” with the body if she did not agree to a secret funeral.
She said: “I am recording this video because they started threatening me.”
“They look me in the eye, they say that if I don’t agree to a secret funeral, they will do something with my son’s body.”
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Alexei Navalny in 2018. Photo: Reuters
She also quoted one of the investigators as telling her: “Time is not on your side, the bodies are decomposing.”
There was no immediate response from Russian investigators.
Mr. Navalny – one of the president's harshest critics Russian President Vladimir Putin A prominent figure in the Russian opposition to his leadership – he died in a penal colony in the Arctic.
His death was announced last Friday.
Ms. Navalnaya has been calling on the authorities to hand over his body to the family since then.
This came as Navalny's team said his death certificate showed he died of “natural causes.”
Mr. Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, on Monday The accused is Vladimir Putin She was responsible for her husband's death and claimed that he died as a result of the Novichok nerve agent.
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The authorities were also accused of hiding his body until traces of poison disappeared. Navalny was previously poisoned with a nerve agent in August 2020, but survived.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian president had not watched the video and would not comment given that Ms. Navalnaya had recently become a widow, but he denied Novichok's allegations.
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According to the Russian prison service, Navalny lost consciousness and died suddenly on Friday after an outing in the Polar Wolf penal colony above the Arctic Circle where he was serving a three-decade prison sentence.
His body was reportedly taken to the morgue of the Salekhard District Clinical Hospital, but Mr Navalny's mother Lyudmila and his lawyer were not “allowed inside”.
