UK imposes sanctions on heads of penal colony where Russia’s Navalny died | Human Rights News

Cameron guarantees to carry these accountable accountable, as Navalny’s mom takes authorized motion to recuperate his physique.

The UK has imposed sanctions on six officers overseeing the Arctic penal colony the place Russian opposition chief Alexey Navalny died.

The sanctions, introduced by British Overseas Secretary David Cameron on Wednesday, goal the pinnacle and 5 deputy heads of the IK-3 penal colony in Kharp in Russia’s Yamal-Nenets area, who now face a ban on coming into the UK and can have their property frozen.

“These accountable for Navalny’s brutal therapy ought to be below no phantasm – we are going to maintain them accountable,” Cameron mentioned.

“It’s clear that the Russian authorities noticed Navalny as a risk and so they tried repeatedly to silence him.”

The UK is the primary nation to impose sanctions in response to Navalny’s dying, the Overseas Workplace mentioned because it described him as “a political prisoner who devoted his life to exposing the corruption of the Russian system, calling without cost and open politics, and holding the Kremlin to account”.

🔴 SANCTIONED: heads of Arctic penal colony the place Alexei Navalny was killed. pic.twitter.com/2FZn0W5b73

— Overseas, Commonwealth & Improvement Workplace (@FCDOGovUK) February 21, 2024

The sanctioned people embody Vadim Konstantinovich Kalinin, who oversaw the jail the place Navalny was saved in solitary confinement for as much as two weeks at a time, it added.

The penal colony about 1,900km (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow is taken into account one of many hardest in Russia. Its inmates are convicted of grave crimes.

Russian authorities have mentioned the reason for 47-year-old Navalny’s sudden dying on February 16 on the colony, known as “Polar Wolf”, remains to be unknown and have refused to launch his physique for the subsequent two weeks, pending a preliminary inquest.

On Wednesday, Navalny’s mom, Lyudmila Navalnaya, filed a lawsuit at a courtroom within the city of Salekhard close to the penal colony, contesting officers’ refusal to launch her son’s physique so she may bury him with dignity.

A closed-door listening to has been scheduled for March 4, Russia’s state information company TASS reported.

Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, launched a video on Monday claiming the authorities had not but handed over his physique as a result of they had been ready for traces of the Novichok nerve agent to vanish.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has rejected allegations of a cover-up and President Vladimir Putin’s alleged involvement as “unfounded, insolent accusations concerning the head of the Russian state”.

The UK’s determination to take focused punitive motion in opposition to the jail heads coincided with plans by the United States to impose sanctions in opposition to Russia over the Putin critic’s dying and the two-year war in Ukraine, set to be introduced on Friday.

Cameron will attend the G20 overseas ministers’ assembly in Brazil in a while Wednesday and the Overseas Workplace mentioned “he’ll use the chance to name out Russia’s aggression and its international impression on to Russian Overseas Minister Sergey Lavrov.”