Alexei Navalny's body found in Russia with ‘signs of bruises’ on head, chest: Report

Prominent Russian opposition leader and President Vladimir Putin critic Alexei Navalny's body was found in a hospital morgue in the Arctic two days after his death, with “signs of bruises” on his body, reported a Russian newspaper quoting an anonymous paramedic.

The paramedic said that as per protocol, the bodies are taken directly to the Foreign Medicine Bureau, but Alexei Navalny's body "was taken to a clinical hospital for some reason." The source also said that the signs of bruising on his body resemble those of someone being held down during a seizure.

The anonymous source told the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta Europe that when Navalny's body arrived at the mortuary, there was bruising on his head and chest.

“Usually the bodies of people who die in prison are taken straight to the Bureau of Forensic Medicine on Glazkova Street, but in this case, it was taken to the clinical hospital for some reason,” Novaya Gazeta quoted the paramedic as saying.

The source further said, "They drove him to the morgue, brought him in, and then stationed two policemen in front of the door. They might as well have put up a sign saying ‘something mysterious is going on here!’ Of course, everyone wanted to know what had happened, what all the secrecy was about and whether they were trying to hide something serious.”

The paramedic further said that as per his expertise, the injuries on Navalny's body showed that someone tried to hold him down while he was convulsing. “They also said he had a bruise on his chest — the kind that comes from indirect cardiac massage,” he said.

Relatives denied access to Navalny's body

Alexei Navalny's relatives and immediate family was denied access to his body for the third day in a row after his death, his team said Monday, saying his mother was "not allowed" into a morgue where it could be being held.

The Putin critic's spokeswoman Kira Yarmys posted on X, “Alexei's mother and his lawyers arrived at the morgue early in the morning. They were not allowed to go in. One of the lawyers was literally pushed out. When the staff was asked if Alexei's body was there, they did not answer.”

Alexei Navalny was the main political opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He was serving a three-decade sentence in the Russian Far North in one of Russia's harshest prisons.

Navalny fell unconscious and died inside the prison on Friday, just three years into his 30-year sentence.

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