Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has gone on a hunger strike in prison, his Instagram account announced Wednesday. The Instagram post claimed that Navalny’s hunger strike is in protest of authorities allegedly denying him medical treatment for pain and numbness in his back and leg.
Navalny’s lawyers fear that the Kremlin critic’s health is further deteriorating in the Russian penal colony about 60 miles from central Moscow, where he is serving a 2.5-year sentence.
According to a translation of the Instagram post, Navalny claims that he is being “tortured by sleep deprivation”; he has “no other methods of fighting”, the post states.
“The back pain has spread to my leg. Parts of my right leg, and now my left leg, have lost all feeling,” he revealed, claiming he is been tortured by sleep deprivation, with prison guards waking him up eight times every night.
“So what can I do? I am announcing a hunger strike to demand that the law be obeyed and that I am seen by a doctor of my choosing,” he said.
Denying these allegations, the Vladimir Region Federal Penitentiary Service Directorate announced Wednesday that Navalny receives all necessary medical aid with consideration of his medical state.
“Prisoner A. Navalny is provided with all necessary medical aid in accordance with his current medical diagnosis,” the Directorate website says.
Besides, the Directorate noted that “the procedure of prisoner oversight, including over A. Navalny, is carried out in accordance with the law and is being applied to all prisoners without exceptions.”
“The penal facility employees strictly observe the right of all prisoners for uninterrupted eight-hour sleep. During night time, in accordance with the law, the employees patrol the residential block and visually check the presence of inmates in their beds. These measures do not obstruct the prisoners’ rest,” the Directorate explained.
The prisoners are provided meetings with lawyers in accordance with the Criminal-Procedural Code, the agency added.
The agency underscored that “the detention conditions in penal facilities of the penitentiary system are regulated by legal acts of the Russian Federation.”.
Navalny was sentenced earlier this year
Navalny was sentenced to prison in February this year for violating parole conditions of a suspended sentence handed to him in 2014, when he was found guilty of embezzling 30 million rubles ($400,000) from two companies, including the French cosmetics brand Yves Rocher.
Navalny also survived an alleged assassination attempt in Germany, when he was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok, which has been attributed to Russian intelligence. U.S. and European Union officials have demanded Navalny’s release and sanctioned Russian officials for his poisoning.
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