The body of Alexei Navalny, a prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin who died in a Russian prison, was reported to have bruising on his head and chest, according to a Russian newspaper citing a paramedic professional.
The unnamed source, identified as an experienced paramedic, said Navalny’s head and chest were bruised when his body arrived at the mortuary, as reported by the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta Europe.
According to Russian prison officials, 47-year-old Navalny fell unconscious and died on Friday after a walk at the Polar Wolf penal colony in the Arctic, where he was serving a three-decade sentence.
Following his death, his body was initially taken to the nearby town of Labytnangi and later transferred to the District Clinical Hospital in the regional capital of Salekhard.
“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,” the newspaper quoted the paramedic as saying.
He further stated, “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, associated with an ambulance service, said that he had been told that Navalny’s body showed signs of bruising.
“As an experienced paramedic, I can say that the injuries described by those who saw them appeared to be from convulsions. â€æ If a person is convulsing and others try to hold him down but the convulsions are very strong, then bruising appears. They also said he had a bruise on his chest — the kind that comes from indirect cardiac massage.”
However, the Russian government has denied that Navalny was tortured or beaten and has said that he died of natural causes.
Source: India Today
