RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES PRESSURING ‘SECRET’ BURIAL, NAVALNY’S MOTHER SAYS

Fri 23 February 2024:

Alexey Navalny’s mother has said, she is under pressure from Russian authorities to bury the opposition leader’s body in “secret”.

Lyudmila Navalnaya said that she was given permission to see her son’s body in the morgue by Russian officials in a video message that was uploaded on YouTube on Thursday.

She claimed that because of the funeral of the Kremlin critic who passed away last week while being held in custody, investigators were attempting to “blackmail” her by making her arrange a secret burial service in which no one was invited.

“They want this to be done secretly, with no farewell. They want to bring me to the edge of a cemetery, to a fresh grave and say: ‘Here lies your son.’ I don’t agree to this,” she said.

There was no immediate comment from Russian authorities.

Navalnaya said she had been taken to the morgue and shown Navalny’s body on Wednesday evening. On Tuesday, she made an appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Let me finally see my son,” she said, urging authorities to release his body so she could bury him.

Navalny’s team said the death certificate, also seen by Navalnaya on Wednesday, stated that he had died of natural causes.

Navalny, Russia’s best-known opposition politician, died suddenly in an Arctic penal colony last Friday at the age of 47. His aides and family have alleged that the Kremlin murdered him, an allegation Russia has rejected.

The Kremlin has said it had nothing to do with Navalny’s death, and that the circumstances are being investigated. Putin has yet to comment on it.

“The investigators claim that they know the cause of death,” said Navalnaya, dressed in black and speaking in a calm voice on video. “They have all the medical and legal documents ready, which I saw, and I signed the medical death certificate.

“According to the law, they should have given me Alexey’s body right away, but they have not done so until now. Instead, they are blackmailing me, setting me conditions on where, when and how Alexey should be buried. This is illegal.”

Navalny’s mother said: “I’m recording this video because they started threatening me. Looking into my eyes, they say that if I don’t agree to a secret funeral, they will do something with my son’s body.”

She quoted one of the investigators as saying: “Time is not on your side; corpses decompose.”

“I don’t want special conditions,” she said.

“I just want everything to be done according to the law. I demand that my son’s body be returned to me immediately.”

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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