Lyudmila Navalnaya, the mother of late opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, said on February 22 that investigators allowed her to see her son's body late on February 21 in the Arctic city of Salekhard.
In a video statement, Navalnaya said she signed a death certificate, but that the authorities continued to hold her son's body.
Navalnaya said she spent 24 hours in the directorate of the Investigative Committee in Salekhard and was brought to a morgue, where she saw her son's body for the first time since his death was made public on February 16.
Navalnaya said she was brought to the morgue "secretly" and signed the death certificate there, stressing that the authorities were breaking the law by not releasing her son's body to her and by "putting forward conditions on where, when, and how Aleksei should be buried."
The authorities in her presence "were receiving commands either from the Kremlin or from the Investigative Committee's central office," Navalnaya said.
"They want the burial to be held secretly without any farewell ceremonies," she added in the video. "They want to bring me to the edge of a cemetery and say to me, 'Here is where your son is resting.' I do not agree with that."
Navalnaya said she wanted her son's burial to be public, so that all his supporters can bid farewell to him.
"I am recording this video because they started threatening me. They look into my eyes and say that if I do not agree to the secret burial, they will do something bad with my son's body," she said. "I do not want any conditions. I just want everything to be done in accordance with the law. I demand my son's body to be given to me immediately."
WATCH: A Russian doctor who was involved in efforts to diagnose Navalny after he was poisoned in 2020 says traces of poison can be removed from a dead body. He also said there was no reason not to hand over the body.
Your browser doesn’t support HTML5
Former Navalny Doctor Says Poison Could Be Removed From Body
Navalnaya has been trying to get access to her son's body since his death in a special-regime prison, the harshest type of penitentiary in Russia, was announced. Prison officials said the 47-year-old died after he collapsed while on a daily walk out of his cell.
On February 21, Navalnaya filed a lawsuit in a Russian court demanding the release of her son's body. A closed-door hearing into complaint is scheduled to be held on March 4.
Navalnaya on February 20 posted a video on social media taken from outside the so-called Polar Wolf prison where Navalny had been held since December, pleading with President Vladimir Putin for his help, saying the "resolution of this matter depends solely on you."