Navalny aide says his body won’t be released for 14 days

An aide for the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Monday that his body will not be released for two weeks pending further examination.

“The investigators told the lawyers and Alexey’s mother that they would not give them the body. The body will be under some sort of ‘chemical examination’ for another 14 days,” Navalny spokesperson Kira Yarmysh wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Russian officials announced Friday that Navalny, 47, had died in the country’s highest security-level facility near the Arctic Circle where he had been imprisoned. His death sparked criticism of Russia throughout the world, with many world leaders and critics blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Russian Federal Prison Service said Navalny felt unwell after a walk and lost consciousness, noting an ambulance was called but the crew’s efforts to rehabilitate him were unsuccessful. Ivan Zhdanov, the director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, said Saturday that Russian officials told Navalny’s mother her son died from “sudden death syndrome.”

“Sudden death syndrome” is a general term used to describe various cardiac syndromes that can prompt sudden cardiac arrest and death.

Navalny’s family requested that his body be returned to them “immediately,” Yarmysh said Saturday on X. His body was picked up by members of the Investigative Committee, who were conducting “investigations” with him, she continued.

In another post, she said one of Navalny’s lawyers who went to Salekhard’s Investigative Committee “was told that ‘the cause of Alexey’s death has not yet been established, a new histological examination has been carried out.’”

Yarmysh said results would “supposedly be available next week,” adding it’s “obvious that they are lying and doing everything they can to avoid handing over the body.”