TASS. February 16. /TASS/. Blogger Alexey Navalny, who has died in prison, did not complain about any health problems, Danila Gontar, chairman of the regional public monitoring commission, told TASS.
"There have been no health complaints. That’s true. We had no information about this," he said, adding that Navalny’s relatives had not asked any help from the commission.
According to Gontar, representatives of the commission planned to visit the penal colony in late January but failed to secure a quorum after some of its members had felt ill.
The Federal Penitentiary Service’s Directorate for the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region said earlier that Navalny had died in penal colony No.3 on February 16. According to the penitentiary authority, Navalny felt sick after a walk and fainted. Medics arrived immediately but their resuscitation efforts failed.
Navalny, who received suspended sentences for embezzlement twice, was wanted in Russia for repeated violations of conditions of his conviction in the Yves Rocher case. On January 17, 2021, he was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport upon arrival from Berlin, where he had undergone medical treatment. On February 2, 2021, Moscow’s court replaced Navalny’s three-and-a-half-year suspended sentence with real jail time due to multiple probation violations. In March 2022, he was also found guilty of contempt of the court and fraud while raising election campaign funds. In August 2023, he was found guilty of setting up an extremist community.