Photo: Getty Images
The body of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was reported to have died at the age of 47 while incarcerated in a Kremlin prison earlier this month, was "abused," his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, told European lawmakers on Wednesday (February 28) via Sky News.
Navalnaya, who had publicly accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of killing her husband in a nine-minute video shared earlier this month, doubled-down on her claim, noting that her husband was "tortured for three years" while incarcerated at the notorious IK-3 penal colony in Kharp located north of the Arctic Circle.
“And then they killed him. Even after that they abused his body and abused his mother,” Navalnaya told the European Parliament.
Navalny's body was finally returned to his mother on Saturday (February 24), more than a week after his death, and loved ones fear his funeral service scheduled at Moscow's Church of the Icon of the Mother of God on Friday (March 1) will result in chaos “if the police will arrest those coming to say goodbye,” his wife told the European Parliament.
“You are not dealing with a politician but with a monster,” she told lawmakers of Putin, claiming he was propped up by an "organized criminal gang" and "puppets" willing to do his bidding.
“There are tens of millions of Russians who are against war, against Putin, against the evil he brings,” she added.
“We must not persecute them. On the contrary, you must work with them. With us.”
Navalny, a Russian native, gained admiration from the opposition after voluntarily returning to his home country from Germany, where he had undergone treatment for what was proven to be an attempt to poison him with a nerve agent, in 2021. Navalny said he was poisoned in Siberia in August 2020, however, the Kremlin denied having attempted to kill him, claiming there was no evidence that he was poisoned with a nerve agent.