News
Yulia Navalnaya, wife of jailed opposition activist Alexei Navalny, reported on the state of the politician in an Instagram post on January 11. Navalny, who is currently serving a lengthy prison sentence at the IK-6 maximum security prison in the Vladimir region, had written Yulia a letter confirming he was ill. His fever has persisted for over a week – despite his condition, Navalny is not allowed to lie down during the day or receive medical treatment, with the prison authorities deliberately worsening the conditions of his detention.
“Imagine being locked up in a two-by-three-meter cage, then being joined by in someone who is already sick to give you a bad cold which is then overlaid with the flu, being woken up at 6 a.m. and not being allowed to lie down all day even though you have a high fever.
On Monday a lawyer came to see [Navalny], he was allowed to give him medicine, he happily ran to the pharmacy, and when he came back, they didn’t let him hand it over. The usual practice of perpetual deceit,” wrote Navalnaya.
In her post, Yulia appealed to the prison administration and medical staff:
“Are you even human? Your parents and children are waiting for you at home. What’s going on in your head, how do you live, are you happy that you deliberately infected a person, you don’t treat him, and refuse to give him medication? I won't even start on whether you consider Alexei a criminal or not. I don’t think he is. In any case, the punishment for criminals is isolation from society, not torture. Alexei, of course, will recover sooner or later, and you'll have to live with the fact that your job was to torture people for the rest of your life. And maybe you're reading this post now, rubbing your hands and giggling, but one day you'll realize what an ugly thing you are doing. Leave him alone for at least a few days and give him some basic medication!”
Over 500 doctors have already signed an open letter to Vladimir Putin demanding that medical professionals be allowed to visit Navalny and that they stop sending him to the punishment cell. The letter was made available to The Insider.
On December 31 last year, Navalny was sent to a punishment cell for 15 days as he washed his face half an hour before the scheduled time. Navalny is now locked in the cell with both a fever and cough, as there is a flu epidemic in the prison.
A convict who had been previously held in the prison’s medical unit with flu patients was also recently transferred to Navalny's punishment cell. Kira Yarmysh, an associate of the opposition leader, reported that Navalny fell ill soon after the transfer.
“Unfortunately, the bacteriological weapon worked. Navalny is now in a SHU cell with a fever and cough. We’re trying to give him medicine,” tweeted Navalny's lawyer Vadim Kobzev.