Russia responsible for Navajo's death, UN expert says

The UN's first special rapporteur for the human rights situation in Russia, Mariana Katzarova, said on Monday that the death of the opposition politician, Alexei Navlany, is Moscow's responsibility, since he was either killed in prison or died from prison conditions that constituted torture.

Russian authorities say Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin's most prominent critic, died on February 16th in a Arctic prison for natural causes.

Navalny's wife, Julia Navalnaya, has charged Putin with his murder, an accusation that the Kremlin turns down.

Navalny has been serving a 19-year prison sentence on charges he and his supporters have been considered politically motivated.

So the Russian government is responsible, in one way or another, for its death”, Mariana Katzarova told Reuters, in the margins of a United Nations event in Geneva for Russian political prisoners.

It cited long periods of isolation, which it said amounted to about 300 days, which could have caused a slow <x0 death over several years”.

Katzarova, who was appointed last year and has not yet been given access to the country, also said that other prisoners in Russia could have the same fate as Navajo.

She said the highly concerned “” for opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza.

“Since the death of Alexei Navally, there has not been a day without wondering, who is the next Navlan”, she said.

“and there will be another Navajo, certainly, with this level ofpression”, she added.

Katzarova, a former Bulgarian investigator for Amnesty International, is one of dozens of independent human rights experts mandated by the United Nations to report on specific topics or crises, though the only one reporting on one of the five permanent member states at the UN Security Council.

Civil society groups speak of many political prisoners being held in Russia after expressing opposition to Ukraine's Russian occupation or because of its refusal to fight.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, launched in February 2022, entered the third year.

Moscow rejects criticism of its domestic rights.

In her speech at the UN meeting earlier, where Russian journalist ʹ Nobel Prize winner Dmitry Muratov spoke, Katzarova called for more pressure on Moscow to free political prisoners and investigate the death of Navalny.

“We cannot just allow ourselves to be offended by the human rights situation in Russia”, she said in the room filled with diplomats.

“You are entitled to take steps, real steps to protect these political prisoners”, she added. /Radio Free Europe