Russian authorities on Saturday handed the body of opposition leader Alexei Navalny to his mother after she struggled for a week to recover it, according to his team.
Dozens of Russian celebrities had recorded video appeals to President Vladimir Putin to hand over Navalny’s body to his family and more than 98,000 Russians signed a petition organized by legal rights group OVD-Info.
Announcing the breakthrough, Kira Yarmysh, Navalny’s press secretary, said it was not clear whether authorities would interfere in the funeral arrangements.
Lyudmila Navalnaya, the opposition leader’s mother, has said that her wish is for him to be flown to Moscow, enabling a public farewell service, as is traditional in Russia, a funeral and his burial at the Troyekurovskoy cemetery, where many prominent Russians including opposition figures, have been buried.
Earlier, Navalnaya said that Russia’s Investigative Committee had pressed her to agree to a small private funeral, with only family members present.
“The funeral is still to come. We don’t know if the authorities will prevent it from being held the way the family wants and the way Alexei deserves. We will report information as it becomes available,” Yarmysh said.
Navalny, 47, died suddenly in an Arctic Russian prison colony on Feb. 16, penitentiary officials said, removing the most prominent figure inside Russia willing to challenge the Kremlin’s rule.