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Russian prosecutors demand Navalny’s medical records from Germany

Wednesday, 02 September 2020 8:17 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 02 September 2020 8:31 AM ]

German police officers stand outside the Charite Mitte Hospital Complex, where opposition figure Alexi Navalny has been admitted, in Berlin, Germany, on August 24, 2020. (Photo by Reuters)

Russian prosecutors have asked Germany to provide the medical records of opposition figure Alexi Navalny, who is in coma in a German hospital, for a comparative study of his condition.

Navalny, 44, who had drunk a cup of tea at the airport prior to a flight from the Siberian city of Tomsk to the Russian capital of Moscow last month, collapsed on the flight and his plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Omsk due to a sudden deterioration in his health.

Navalny’s team claimed that the drink had been poisoned, accusing Moscow of poisoning the opposition figure and ordering a ban on transporting him in “an attempt on his life.” But he was soon airlifted to Germany for treatment.

German doctors at Berlin’s Charite Hospital, where Navalny was admitted to, said clinical findings indicated he had been poisoned with a substance from the group of cholinesterase inhibitors. They said the specific substance was unknown.

The Russian Prosecutor-General’s Office requested the preliminary diagnosis from the German hospital for a comparative study, Russia’s TASS news agency on Wednesday cited RBC newspaper as reporting.

The office demanded medical documents and research by German specialists both during Navalny’s transportation from Russia to Germany and in the course of his stay in the clinic.

“We request to collect Navalny’s biomaterial for comparative study (blood, urine, saliva, hair, profiles of nail plate, and buccal epithelium),” the request read.

Before he was taken to Germany, Navalny had been taken to a hospital in Omsk. Doctors at that hospital said tests on his blood samples for poisoning came back negative.

Navalny’s case has prompted Western countries to call for a criminal investigation. But Russia has said there is not enough evidence yet to warrant such an investigation.

Russia says no grounds yet to probe allegations of Navalny’s poisoning

Russia says there are still no grounds for a probe of the alleged poisoning of opposition figure Alexei Navalny.

Moscow has also denied allegations that it has poisoned Navalny.

In 2018, the UK accused Russia of having poisoned Sergei Skripal, a former double spy, and his daughter in Salisbury in southern England. Russia repeatedly denied any involvement in that incident.

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