WARSAW, Feb  24, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - The body of late Russian opposition

leader Alexei Navalny has been handed to his mother, more than a week after he
died in an Arctic prison colony, his spokesperson said on Saturday.

       Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's most vocal critic, died on February 16
in one of Russia's toughest prisons in northern Siberia, where he was serving a
19-year sentence on charges widely seen as political retribution for his
opposition.

       "Alexei's body was handed over to his mother. Many thanks to all those who
demanded this with us," Navalny spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said on X, formerly
known as Twitter.

       For the past week, Russian authorities had refused to give Lyudmila
Navalnaya custody of her son's body, after she travelled to the town of
Salekhard in the Yamalo-Nenets region, the nearest settlement to the prison
colony where Navalny died.

       Navalny's team on Friday said they had filed a lawsuit to obtain the body,
alleging that local investigators had threatened to bury him on the prison
grounds if his mother did not agree to a "secret" funeral.
       Yarmysh said plans for the funeral were still unclear.
       "Lyudmila Ivanovna is still in Salekhard. The funeral is still pending. We
do not know if the authorities will interfere to carry it out as the family
wants and as Alexei deserves," she said.

       His team said previously the Kremlin was trying to block a public funeral,
which could turn into a show of support for Navalny's movement and his
opposition to Putin.

       The Russian leader, who famously never said Navalny's name in public, has
not commented on the death of his most vocal critic.