The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture urged Russia on Wednesday to provide jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny with “urgent” and “complete” medical care after information that his health it is deteriorating.
Navalny supporters said last month that he was suffering significant stomach pain in prison, which they said could be a sign of some kind of slow-acting poison.
“I am distressed by the deteriorating state of Mr. Navalny and the apparent lack of satisfactory diagnosis and medical treatment,” said Alice Edwards, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Punishment, in a statement.
Russia’s prison service has in the past denied allegations that its staff mistreated Navalny and said the leader always received medical treatment when needed.
Navalny voluntarily returned to Russia in 2021 from Germany, where he received treatment for what lab tests showed was an attempt to poison him with a nerve agent in Siberia in 2020.
“He must receive immediate and ongoing appropriate care, including comprehensive medical examinations, treatment and follow-up of his health status in a civilian hospital,” Edwards noted.
Navalny, 46, is serving a combined 11-and-a-half-year sentence for fraud and contempt of court on charges he says were trumped up to silence him.
Source: CNN Brasil
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