Russian government officials have stated that opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in prison from “sudden death syndrome.”
The Kremlin reportedly told Navalny’s mother that her son died from an unexpected cardiac arrest in his cell.
However, the official cause of death was revealed as 47-year-old Navalny’s body was reportedly found with “signs of bruising” this weekend.
Officials at the prison where Navalny died told his mother that his body could not be handed over until an investigation had been completed.
They said his body was sent to a nearby morgue.
An anonymous paramedic claiming to work for the morgue told independent news outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe that the bruising was consistent with a person being held down while suffering a seizure.
“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 anonymous paramedic reportedly told the outlet.
Meanwhile, world leaders and Navalny’s own spokesperson have argued that he was, in fact, murdered by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Prison officials said Navalny fell unconscious and died shortly afterward on Friday.
He had been serving a roughly 30-year sentence in a penal colony.
“When Alexei’s lawyer and mother arrived at the colony this morning, they were told that the cause of Navalny’s death was sudden death syndrome,” Ivan Zhdanov, who directs Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, announced on social media.
Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS) is an umbrella term used for the many different causes of cardiac arrest in young people, according to the London Center for Advanced Cardiology.
Sometimes there are no warning signs, but in other cases, people can experience dizziness or fainting spells.
SDS is often used to refer to a wide range of scenarios that lead to sudden and unexpected death.
Navalny’s body is still in government hands, however.
His family is demanding that his body be turned over to them, according to his spokesperson, Kira Yarmysh.
“Alexei Navalny was murdered. His death occurred on Feb. 16 at 2:17 p.m. local time, according to the official message to Alexei’s mother,” said Yarmysh.
“An employee of the colony said that the body of Navalny is now in Salekhard.”
“It was picked up by investigators from the IC. Now they are conducting ‘investigations’ with him,” the spokesperson said.
“We demand that Alexei Navalny’s body be handed over to his family immediately.”
Navalny, a vocal critic of President Putin, had previously organized anti-government demonstrations and ran for office to advocate for reforms against what he called corruption in Russia.
He was the victim of an alleged assassination attempt in 2020 when he suffered poisoning from a suspected Novichok nerve agent.
On Friday, Democrat President Joe Biden told reporters at the White House that “we don’t know exactly what happened, but there is no doubt that the death of Navalny was a consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Navalny’s “death in a Russian prison and the fixation and fear of one man only underscores the weakness and rot at the heart of the system that Putin has built.”
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