The remains of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was handed over to his mother on Saturday, more than a week after he died in an Arctic prison colony, according to his spokesperson.
Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critic, died on February 16 in one of Russia‘s harshest prisons in northern Siberia, where he was serving a 19-year term on charges that were widely interpreted as political retribution for his opposition.
“Alexei’s body was handed over to his mother. Many thanks to all those who demanded this with us,” Navalny spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
For the last week, Russian officials refused to grant Lyudmila Navalnaya custody of her son’s remains when she travelled to Salekhard in the Yamalo-Nenets region, the closest settlement to the prison colony where Navalny died.
Navalny’s team announced on Friday that they had launched a lawsuit to acquire the body, claiming that local detectives had threatened to bury him on prison premises if his mother did not consent to a “secret” funeral.
Yarmysh stated that plans for the funeral were still uncertain.
“Lyudmila Ivanovna is still at Salekhard. The funeral is still pending. We do not know if the authorities will interfere to carry it out as the family wants and as Alexei deserves,” she said.
His team earlier stated that the Kremlin was attempting to prevent a public funeral, which may turn into a show of support for Navalny’s campaign and resistance to Putin.
The Russian leader, who notoriously never mentioned Navalny’s name in public, has not responded to the death of his most vociferous opponent.