Alexei Navalny's lawyer says he is suffering from two spinal hernias

A lawyer for jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on April 7 said that doctors have found him to be suffering from two spinal hernias. According to AP, Vadim Kobzev said that Navalny also has a spinal protrusion and is beginning to lose feeling in his hands. Kabzev’s statement comes a week after the Kremlin critic went on a hunger strike to protest what he called poor medical care in the Russian prison. His team had also recently alleged that Navalny lost eight kilograms in weight in just three weeks, even before starting a hunger strike. 

Navalny, 44, had started refusing food on March 31 in order to pressure the prison authorities to provide him with medical assistance for the acute pain in his legs and back. Putin critic has accused the prison officials of refusing him access to a specialist and even medicines to treat his deteriorating health in jail. Prison officials, on the other hand, have denied waking Navalny up eight times a night and claimed that he is receiving necessary medical assistance. 

Alexei Navalny’s arrest 

Navalny has been held at the nation’s most notorious IK-2 prison which is nearly 100 kilometres from Moscow since March 11. The original sentence of two-and-a-half years to the Kremlin critic was handed down on February 2 after ruling that while Navalny was in Germany, recovering from poisoning, he violated probation terms of a 2014 case in which he had received a suspended sentence of three and a half years. He was initially detained by the Russian state in January as soon as he arrived from the European nation where he spent at least five months recovering from Novichok poisoning that Navalny has blamed on Putin’s government. 

Even though Navalny’s supporters blame Kremlin for his poisoning, the government has denied any kind of involvement. Russia has even rejected Western calls to free Navalny and dismissed any criticism of his treatment inside the prison. Navalny has described the prison on the outskirts of the country as a ‘Sector of Enhanced Control A'. 

(Image: AP)