Share
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is in failing health because of a new suspected poisoning and is back in a punishment cell after a few days in regular confinement, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.
Anna Veduta, a Washington, DC-based vice president of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, told The Associated Press the 46-year-old Navalny fell ill last Friday when he was let out of the punishment cell and put in a conventional cell. He had lost about 18 pounds over the past 15 days. On Monday, Navalny wrote on Twitter, he was put back in a punishment cell for another 15-day term.
An ambulance was called early Saturday because of acute stomach pains but Navalny received no diagnosis, one of his lawyers, Vadim Kobzev, wrote on Twitter after visiting him in prison.
“We believe he is slowly being administered low doses of poison” in pills he is given without identification, Veduta said.
A video documentary about Navalny won an Oscar last month. The documentary portrays Navalny’s career of fighting official corruption, his near-fatal poisoning with a nerve agent in 2020 that he blames on the Kremlin, his five-month recuperation in Germany and his 2021 return to Moscow, where he was taken into custody. He was later sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison and last year was convicted of other charges and given another nine-year term.
Navalny has faced unrelenting pressure from Russian authorities, and has been in and out of isolation in a tiny punishment cell. He is allowed to write letters or have his lawyers visit occasionally.
RELATED TOPICS:
Nuggets Close to Sweeping Lakers After Game 3 Win
58 mins ago
Jose Ramirez: ‘I Want to Make a Statement and Put on a Show’
1 hour ago
Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s 6 Shutout Innings Help Dodgers Finish Sweep, Defeat Nats 2-1
2 hours ago
The 49ers Add Florida Receiver Ricky Pearsall With the 30th Draft Pick
3 hours ago
Political Stunt, Egg on His Face, Personal Vendetta. Who’s Fresno DA Talking About?
3 hours ago
LA Judge Deals a Blow to Law Allowing Duplexes in Single-Family Tracts
5 hours ago
US Announces New Patriot Missiles for Ukraine as Part of New $6 Billion Aid Package
5 hours ago
Trita Parsi: Blind Support for Israel Erodes Western Democracies