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Putin blocking Navalny's body handover, his widow alleges

Sunday, 25 February 2024



WARSAW, Feb 24 (AFP): Alexei Navalny's widow said Russian President Vladimir Putin had personally ordered that his arch critic's body should not be handed over to his family after his death in an Arctic jail nine days ago.
Navalny's mother has said authorities in the Arctic town of Salekhard are threatening to bury him on the prison grounds if she did not agree to a "secret" funeral.
"You tortured him alive, now you torture him while he is dead," Yulia Navalnaya, who has vowed to continue her husband's work, said in a new video.
"I completely understand that this has not been curated by some investigator in Salekhard. Putin is directing it all," she said.
"It's Putin saying 'put pressure on the mother, break her, tell her the body of her son is rotting'," she said.
She said Navalny's mother, who travelled to the remote prison colony where he died, is being "tormented" by authorities.