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Wednesday, 02 September 2020_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, collapsed after drinking tea during a flight from the Siberian city of Omsk to the Russian capital of Moscow last month, and his plane was forced to make an emergency landing 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.
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