Jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny is in poor health, according to one of his lawyers. The lawyer said Navalny is suffering back pain and has virtually lost the use of one of his legs.
Lawyer Olga Mikhailova said Navalny, 44, received an MRI scan but had not been given the results.
“In my opinion, he is in bad shape healthwise because he is experiencing severe pain in his back and in his right leg,” she said on TV Rain, according to Reuters. “One of his legs practically doesn’t work.”
She added that pleas for Navalny to be given necessary medicine were ignored for four weeks.
Russian authorities said Navalny was in “satisfactory” condition, according to the French news agency.
Navalny allies are asking for proof of his health after reports that his lawyers were denied access to him.
Navalny was sentenced to two-and-a half-years in prison in February on an embezzlement charge.
He is being held at the Pokrov correctional colony, which he described as “a real concentration camp.”
Navalny survived a near-fatal poisoning last year and was arrested when he returned to Moscow in January following lifesaving treatment in Germany.
The United States and other countries have sanctioned Kremlin officials over the poisoning, and many are calling for Navalny’s release.
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