Alexei Navalny on hunger strike accuses prison guards of threatening & force-feeding him

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has been on a hunger strike since March 31 has said that the police threatens to force-feed him. His allies in an Instagram post have said that he has lost weight due to a hunger strike. They have been demanding a health check-up of Navalny from a civil doctor from outside.

Prison officials threatening: Navalny

Navalny's allies in an Instagram post said that he has been on a hunger strike but the officials are trying to force-feed him. The officials in prison have told him that his health is deteriorating. According to his allies, Navalny has also lost weight due to the hunger strike, The opposition leader on April 16 has said that the prison officials refused to let his physician in. He said that the officials in prison fear that the checkup will reveal the loss of sensation in the limbs. He said that it may be connected to the poisoning and reiterated he had “an absolutely guaranteed right: to be examined by an independent civilian doctor.”

Describing his state after more than two weeks of a hunger strike, Navalny said his head was “spinning a lot,” but that he was “still walking. Earlier this week, his wife Yulia, who visited him in prison earlier this week, said the politician was “cheerful” but had trouble talking and lost a lot of weight. His allies on April 1 had blamed the prison authorities for depriving him of sleep but the charge was denied by the guards in the prison.  His allies have demanded that a doctor from outside should conduct a check-up of Navalny. 

Alexei Navalny on March 31 announced that he was going on a hunger strike to protest treatment in the prison. "I have the right to call a doctor and get medications. They give me neither one nor the other. The back pain has moved to the leg. Parts of my right leg and now of my left leg have lost sensitivity. Jokes aside, but this is already annoying," Kremlin’s anti-corruption campaigner wrote in a social media post. 

(Inputs and Image from AP)