An investigator called Alexei Navalny’s mother and gave her an ultimatum regarding her son’s funeral, the politician’s press secretary Kira Yarmysh wrote on Twitter.
“Either she agrees to a secret funeral without a public farewell within 3 hours, or Alexei will be buried in a colony. She refused to negotiate with the Investigative Committee because they do not have the authority to decide how and where she should bury her son. She demands compliance with the law, which obliges investigators to hand over the body within two days from the moment the cause of death is established. According to the medical documents she signed, these two days expire tomorrow. She insists that the authorities allow the funeral and memorial service to be held in accordance with customs,” Yarmysh said.
The death of Alexei Navalny in correctional colony No. 3 in Kharp became known on February 16. Only on the evening of February 21, the politician’s mother Lyudmila was able to see her son’s body. The medical report shown to the mother indicated “natural causes” of death.
Investigators demand that Lyudmila Navalnaya hold a secret funeral, but she does not agree, because she wants everyone to be able to say goodbye to the politician. According to her, investigatorVarapaev directly told her: “Time doesn’t work for you, the corpse is decomposing.”