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fullscreen Alexei Navalny is honored with flowers near the Russian consulate in Frankfurt, Germany. Photo: Michael Probst/AP/TT
A “mysterious tumult” is said to have broken out in the penal colony in northern Russia where the regime critic Alexei Navalny was held – the night before the bid for his death.
Other prisoners were forbidden to move between barracks and security was tightened, writes the investigative newspaper Novaja Gazeta, which has been in contact with a fellow prisoner.
According to him, the guards were in an unusual hurry with the visitation on Thursday evening. Since the prisoners were locked up, activity was noticed in the penal colony.
– We heard cars drive into the prison area late at night but we couldn’t see who came through our cell windows, the prisoner tells the newspaper.
No ambulance
Early the following morning, the guards are said to have searched the prisoners’ cells and confiscated everything from playing cards and mobile phones to immersion heaters. The prisoners were given the impression that they would be subjected to an external inspection.
Around 10 o’clock in the morning, the news of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s death spread.
– The punishment cell where Navalny is placed is a little to the side of the barracks. But we had seen if an ambulance drove up to it. No ambulance came to the colony in the morning, it came only after Navalny’s death was announced, says the prisoner.
– I think he died much earlier than what is said from the official side – probably the night before.
Unclear about body
The news that the 47-year-old opposition politician and Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny had died came on Friday at lunchtime Swedish time.
Relatives have still not been able to see Navalny’s body, but Novaya Gazeta learns that he is in a morgue to which the authorities have referred, but which was closed on Friday.
The lawyer and opposition politician Alexei Navalny has been described over the years as President Vladimir Putin’s worst enemy. In recent days, several hundred Russians who honored his memory have been arrested. Over 150 have been sentenced to shorter prison terms.