Russia

Russian Prosecutors Send Another Request to Germany Regarding Navalny Hospitalisation

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The office of Russia's prosecutor general said on Thursday it had sent a new request to Germany for legal assistance concerning the hospitalisation of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, and accused Berlin of concealing the true circumstances.
Sputnik

The Russian Prosecutor General's Office has sent a new request to Germany's judicial authorities "after studying materials claiming Germany's complete fulfillment of requests for legal assistance related to Navalny's hospitalisation", a press release said.

According to the Russian Prosecutor General's Office, Germany rejected most of the requests, while the provided protocols concerning the questioning of Navalny and his wife were "meaningless".

Russian Prosecutors Send Another Request to Germany Regarding Navalny Hospitalisation
"Given the official representative of the German federal judicial authority saying that the German side has properly carried out its obligations, ... we see it as concealment of the true circumstances of the incident", the press release read on.

The office of Russia's prosecutor general called on their German colleagues to fulfill the requests to the full extent.

Navalny Case

On 20 August, Russian opposition figure and blogger Alexei Navalny fell gravely ill during a domestic flight and after an emergency landing in the Siberian city of Omsk, he was admitted to a hospital there. Local doctors managed to save his life and stabilise his condition, but could only draw a preliminary conclusion, saying that he had suffered from a sudden drop in sugar levels.

His press secretary immediately said he was poisoned, but analysis of his blood and urine samples showed no traces of toxic substances.

After Navalny's condition stabilised, his family requested that he be transferred to the Charite hospital in Berlin. Once the Russian doctors established that he was fit for cross-border aerial transportation, Navalny was flown to Germany for further treatment.

Russian Prosecutors Send Another Request to Germany Regarding Navalny Hospitalisation

Before Navalny came out of a coma in September, the German government claimed that military laboratories had found traces of a Novichok-group nerve agent in his blood. Berlin demanded that Moscow provide an "explanation", but Germany has so far refused to hand over the data that it based its allegations on.

The Kremlin noted that Berlin had not informed Moscow of its findings, and the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that Russia was awaiting a response from Germany to several official requests regarding the situation.

Navalny returned to Russia earlier this month and was immediately arrested for 30 days upon his arrival from Germany over probation violations.

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