Navalny's lawyer 'arrested in Moscow' after helping Russian opposition leader's mother obtain body from authorities
27 February 2024, 20:14
A lawyer who represented 'murdered' Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny and supported his mother while they demanded officials hand over his dead body has been arrested in Moscow, Russian news has reported.
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Vasily Dubkov was briefly detained on Tuesday, before confirming to independent news outlet Verstka that he had been released.
He did not comment as to why he had been detained but said Russian officials had obstructed his activity as a lawyer.
It comes after Dubkov helped Navalny's mother Lyudmila obtain the Putin critic's body after his sudden death at an Arctic penal colony earlier this month.
Dubkov had earlier accused Russian authorities of trying to "blackmail" the distraught mother by giving her an ultimatum and forcing her to bury her son without a public funeral.
Russian authorities have not yet confirmed the brief arrest.
It comes after Navalny's body was finally handed over to his family, a spokesperson for the late opposition leader announced Saturday.
His mother said she was given a "three-hour ultimatum" by Russian officials to agree to a "secret" burial of her son if she wanted custody of his body.
If she disagreed, Russian officials were set to bury Mr Navalny, 47, at the Arctic penal colony where he died.
Vladimir Putin's spokesperson refuted the claim and said they had no involvement in the arrangements for Navalny.
His team said earlier today that they had been unable to find any funeral hall or venue that would agree to hold a service.
A spokesperson said one venue had told them that "funeral agencies were prohibited from working with us," Reuters reported.
Navalny, who has long criticised Putin and campaigned against the Russian President, had suffered a series of attacks on his health in recent years.
He was poisoned with Novichok in 2020, and went to Germany for urgent treatment.
On his return to Russia in 2021, he was jailed for violating parole conditions for a 2014 prison sentence, which was widely condemned as a political charge.
He said he was being tortured in prison, and his staff said he had been placed in isolation 27 times over a total of 308 days - the latest instance of which was on two days before his death.
