Nobel Peace Prize laureates Dmitry Muratov and Maria Ressa have urged the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to intervene on behalf of jailed opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, who has spent more than 100 days in punitive solitary confinement since August 2022.
In a letter signed by Muratov and Ressa, published by the Novaya Gazeta newspaper on January 24, the two say that “as long as [Navalny's] torment goes on, we are all accomplices of the executioners.”
"Do as you are told by your universal humanitarian principle: Prevent human suffering."
Since January 1, dozens of lawmakers, lawyers, and physicians in Russia have urged President Vladimir Putin, the Prosecutor-General's Office and the presidential Council for Human Rights to intervene on behalf of Navalny, whose state of health has dramatically worsened after he was placed in punitive solitary confinement numerous times for what he and his supporters say are dubious reasons.
Navalny and his lawyer, Vadim Kobzev, have said in recent weeks that the opposition politician has a heavy cough and a fever, but the penitentiary's administration is not allowing medicine to be passed on to him.
The call by Muratov and Ressa, who were co-winners of the 2021 Nobel award, may fail to hit the mark, Novaya Gazeta said, given that ICRC officials say the organization “has no mandate for such actions.”
"We understand that the International Committee of the Red cross may face difficulties related to its authority and, therefore, we address all nongovernmental organizations that could assist to resolve this issue," Novaya Gazeta wrote.
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5 Things To Know About Russian Opposition Leader Aleksei Navalny
Navalny suffered a near-fatal poisoning in August 2020 that he blames on Russian security operatives acting at Putin's behest. He was arrested on January 17, 2021, upon arriving from Germany where he was treated for the poisoning.
After that, he was handed a 2 1/2-year prison sentence for violating the terms of an earlier parole during his convalescence abroad. The Kremlin has denied any involvement in Navalny's poisoning.
The original conviction is widely regarded as a trumped-up, politically motivated case.
In March last year, Navalny was handed a separate nine-year prison term on charges of contempt and embezzlement through fraud that he and his supporters have repeatedly rejected as politically motivated.