Moscow, Feb 21 (EFE).- Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s mother has filed a lawsuit at a court, seeking judicial intervention in demanding the release of the body of her son, who died suddenly in an Arctic jail last week.
The state-run Tass news agency reported on Wednesday that the Salekhard City court in the Arctic received an application from Lyudmila Navalnaya, seeking its attention toward “illegal actions and decisions.”
The application would be taken up on Mar. 4 in a closed court hearing, Tass said.
The lawsuit comes a day after Navalny’s mother made a passionate plea to President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, urging him to release her son’s body, shrouded in mystery even after six days of his sudden death.
“I appeal to you, Vladimir Putin. Resolving this problem depends solely on you. Let me finally see my son. I demand the immediate release of Alexei’s body so that I can bury him with dignity,” Navalnaya said in a video shared by Navalny’s team on YouTube.
Speaking in front of what she identified as “the colony IK-3 ‘Polar Wolf,’ where my son died on Feb. 16,” Navalnaya expressed her frustration at being denied access to her son’s body, with prison officials withholding information about its whereabouts.
“I have not been able to see his body for five days. They have not handed it over to me and have not even told me where it is,” she lamented.
The 69-year-old mother arrived in the desolate area of Russia on Saturday, but both prison officials and morgue employees have refused to respond to her requests.
Navalny, aged 47 when he died, passed away on Feb. 16 at a penal colony in the Arctic Circle, where he was serving a three-decade sentence, sparking global outrage and allegations of Putin’s involvement in his death.
He was shifted to the Arctic jail in December after he launched a campaign against Putin’s re-election.
Amid the outcry, Navalny’s aides have accused Russian authorities of withholding his body to conceal evidence of foul play. EFE
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