ECHR Blocking Attempts To Request Navalny's Medical Data From West - Zakharova

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruling to keep Russian opposition activist Alexey Navalny's medical data confidential is blocking any attempts to establish what happened with him during the alleged 2020 poisoning incident, the Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman said on Tuesday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th April, 2021) The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruling to keep Russian opposition activist Alexey Navalny's medical data confidential is blocking any attempts to establish what happened with him during the alleged 2020 poisoning incident, the Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

On Monday, the ECHR said that it had submitted a number of questions to the Russian government as part of the case Navalny v. Russia, which concerns conditions of his detention in a correctional colony. The court, in particular, asks whether his detention and treatment are compatible with Articles 2 and 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, including given his alleged poisoning in 2020. The court at the same time ruled that "any documents pertaining to the applicant's medical condition deposited with the Registry should not be made accessible to the public (Rule 33 1) and should be treated as confidential."

"So, it turns out that now such a decision blocks any attempts to request information from our Western colleagues about what they actually found in his samples, what they are referring to?" Maria Zakharova said on the Vesti FM radio station.

The diplomat suggested that the ECHR is thus "simply deflecting the hit from the relevant lying services of Western countries, who can do anything and then will use such 'human rights' decisions as a cover-up.

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Russia has repeatedly called on Western countries, including Germany, to present biological materials and samples they took from Navalny in August following his alleged poisoning.

Navalny fell ill while aboard a domestic flight on August 20. He was initially treated in the Siberian city of Omsk, where the plane had to urgently land. Local doctors suggested metabolic malfunctions as main diagnosis and said there were no traces of poison in his system. Two days later, he was flown to the Charite hospital in Berlin for further treatment. Later, the German government claimed to have evidence of his poisoning with a nerve agent from the Novichok group. Laboratories in France and Sweden are said to have backed the conclusion. In September, Navalny was discharged from the hospital.

Now, Navalny is in prison on fraud conviction. In late March, he went on hunger strike after being denied a visit by a doctor of his own choice. On Monday, he was transferred to a local hospital for convicts. His health is assessed as satisfactory.