Lyudmila Navalnaya, the mother of late opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, has filed a lawsuit in a Russian court demanding the release of her son's body as outrage mounts over the authorities' handling of Navalny's death in an Arctic prison.
A court in the Arctic region of Yamalo-Nenets said on February 21 that a hearing into complaint will be held on March 4. Navalny died in prison on February 16 but officials have repeatedly refused to return the body to his family claiming that an "investigation" into the cause of death would take up to two weeks.
If the full two weeks are taken to examine Navalny's body, it wouldn't be released until March 4.
Navalnaya has been trying to get access to her son's body since his death in a prison of special regime, the harshest type of penitentiary in Russia, was announced. Prison officials said the 47-year-old died after he collapsed while being on a daily walk out of his cell.
The Salekhard City Court told TASS news agency that the March 4 hearing set for Navalnaya's lawsuit will be held behind closed doors. Navalny, 47, died in the town of Kharp near Salekhard.
On February 20, Navalnaya posted a video on social media taken from outside the so-called Polar Wolf prison's razor-wire topped fence pleading with President Vladimir Putin for his help.
"I'm reaching out to you, Vladimir Putin. The resolution of this matter depends solely on you. Let me finally see my son. I demand that Aleksei's body is released immediately, so that I can bury him like a human being," she said in the video.
A day before that, Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, accused Putin of killing her husband and accused officials of "cowardly and meanly hiding his body, refusing to give it to his mother and lying miserably.”
The Kremlin has rejected any accusations of a role or subsequent coverup in the death of Putin's most vocal critic.
Penitentiary officials told Navalnaya that her son's body was in a morgue in Salekhard, but the morgue turned out to be closed that evening, while its employees told Navalnaya that they do not have her son's body. A day later Navalnaya again came to the morgue, but was not allowed to enter it.
The Investigative Committee said the investigation of her son's death was extended as investigators were conducting "chemical forensics" on Navalny's body.
Your browser doesn’t support HTML5
'Putin's Nemesis' Is Dead. Will Aleksei Navalny Still Figure In Russia's Future?
Navalny's self-exiled associate Ivan Zhdanov said on February 19 that Navalny's body may be held by the authorities for a fortnight, adding that the goal of the investigation's extension was "to cover up the crime."
The OVD-Info human rights group, however, said Russian laws may allow the Investigative Committee to hold Navalny's body for up to 30 days.
Since the announcement of his death, Russian police have cordoned off memorial sites where people were laying flowers and candles to honor Navalny, and dispersed and arrested hundreds of suspected violators in dozens of cities.
Six residents of Russia's second largest city, St. Petersburg, who served several days in jail for laying flowers at a makeshift memorial honoring Navalny were handed written summons on February 21 saying they must report to a military recruitment center.
OVD-Info said that as of February 21, 397 people across 39 cities in Russia have been detained for commemorating Navalny since his death.