The leader of the Russian opposition, Alexei Navalny, is “seriously ill” at the penal colony where he was imprisoned and was recently transferred to the sick section of the prison to be treated for a respiratory illness.
Vladimir Putin’s longtime critic, who had already struggled with his health, said in a note on Monday that he was coughing and had a fever of 100.6F, the Guardian reported.
Navalny was reportedly tested for COVID-19, but it is unclear whether the results returned or gave positive results.
However, several prisoners in his ward have been previously treated for tuberculosis, the opposition said.
Olga Mihailova, a lawyer for Navalny, told Echo Moscow radio that a member of Navalny’s legal team visited him on Tuesday and was “in a pretty bad state.”
“She lost a lot of weight, plus she has a strong cough and a temperature of [100.6F]”Mihailova said.
“This man is seriously ill. It is a complete scandal that IK-2 [prison] led him to this state. ”
Navalny, 44, is serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence for embezzlement allegations that human rights lawyers have called triumphant and politically motivated and the lawyer’s attacks on Putin.
He was arrested in January after returning from Germany, where he was twice poisoned by a Soviet-era nerve agent.
Last week, Navalny went on hunger strike when prison officials refused to let him see a personal physician for help treating back and leg pain and numbness, which made it difficult for him to walk.
He previously described the prison as “a real concentration camp”.
On Tuesday, several supporters who went to prison to protest the lack of medical care were arrested by Russian police, including Anastasia Vasilyeva, head of the Alliance of Russian Doctors and three other members of the group.
Reporters from CNN and Belsat, a Polish television station, were also detained, the Guardian reported.
“We are coming here today to offer help,” Vasilyeva told reporters before being handcuffed. “There is no war here. Let’s solve this problem like humans. “
Navalny’s wife, Yulia, published a letter sent by the prison director on Tuesday, explaining that her husband could not be sent to the hospital because he did not have a passport.
She also claimed that the guard mocked her husband by grilling a chicken in front of him and handing out sweets to his fellow detainees, while Navalny maintained his hunger strike.
