The 47-year-old former lawyer’s team even said that his body would not be handed over to the family until an investigation was completed.
A day after Russian opposition leader and Vladimir Putin’s critic Alexei Navalny fell unconscious and died after a walk at the ‘Polar Wolf’ penal colony in Kharp, his mother was told that Navalny had been struck down by ‘sudden death syndrome’, Reuters reported quoting Navalny’s team.
The 47-year-old former lawyer’s team even said that his body would not be handed over to the family until an investigation was completed.
On Friday, the prison service had said that prison service was unconscious and died after a walk at the ‘Polar Wolf’ penal colony in Kharp – about 1,900 km (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow – where he was serving a three-decade sentence.
US President Joe Biden paid tribute to Navalny’s courage and accused President Vladimir Putin of being responsible for the death – without citing evidence. Apart from this, Britain said there would be consequences for Russia.
Meanwhile, the Russian administration said the West’s reaction was unacceptable and ‘absolutely rabid’. Putin has yet to comment on Navalny’s death.
On Saturday, Navalny’s 69-year-old mother, Lyudmila, braved Arctic temperatures of minus 30 degrees Celsius to visit the penal colony where her son perished.
She was given an official death notice stating the time of death as 2:17 p.m. local time (0917 GMT) on Feb. 16, Navalny’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, told Reuters.
“When Alexei’s lawyer and mother arrived at the colony this morning, they were told that the cause of Navalny’s death was sudden death syndrome,” Ivan Zhdanov, who directs Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, said on social media platform X.