No autopsy yet

Report: Navalny’s body in hospital in Salekhard

The district hospital in the northern Siberian town of Salekhard (archive photo)(Bild: Google Maps)

According to a media report, the body of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who died in custody, is being kept in the district hospital in the town of Salekhard in the far north of Siberia. The body of the deceased is said to have bruises.

Navalny's relatives have not yet been granted access to the 47-year-old's body. There have also been no clues as to where he is being kept. Now "Novaya Gazeta Europa" has reported, citing its own informants, that the body is in the district hospital of Salekhard, the capital of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.

Body not yet autopsied
The "Polar Wolf" prison camp, where Navalny died, is located around 50 kilometers northwest as the crow flies - already beyond the Arctic Circle. According to the report, an autopsy had not yet taken place, at least not until Saturday. There was initially no official confirmation of this information.

Navalny died in a penal camp.(Bild: AP)

Authorities: Resuscitation attempts unsuccessful
According to the Russian authorities, Navalny, who was physically weakened after many days in repeated solitary confinement, collapsed on Friday while walking around the yard in the prison camp in freezing temperatures. Resuscitation attempts were unsuccessful, according to the prison authorities.

Human rights activists accuse the Russian power apparatus of murder. Employees of the prominent anti-corruption campaigner also assume that Navalny was deliberately killed. Navalny's mother has so far tried in vain to collect her dead son. Neither in the penal colony nor in Salekhard has the body been handed over to her.

Bruises due to cramps?
Novaya Gazeta" quotes an anonymous employee of the emergency services. According to him, the bruises are evidence that Navalny had convulsions before his death and was held down by employees of the detention center. A bruise on his chest is also evidence that attempts were actually made to resuscitate him. However, the newspaper report reveals that the informant himself did not see Navalny after his death either, but was only informed of his condition by colleagues.

Meanwhile, pressure is mounting on the Russian authorities to hand over the Kremlin critic's body to his surviving relatives. More than 12,000 people have supported a corresponding appeal to the Russian Investigative Committee, the civil rights platform OWD-Info announced on Sunday. OWD-Info had only launched the appeal itself late on Saturday afternoon. "The body must be released as soon as possible. At the very least, Alexei Navalny should be with his relatives after his death," the statement reads.