Moscow: The body of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died suddenly and unexpectedly in prison on February 16, has been handed over to his mother, his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh wrote on the social media platform X on Saturday.

Yarmysh said she did not know if the authorities would allow a funeral to be held “the way the family wants and the way Alexei deserves”.

Ivan Zhdanov, the director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, thanked “everyone” who had called on Russian authorities to return Navalny’s body to his mother.

Navalny, 47, Russia’s most well-known opposition politicians, died in an Arctic penal colony and his family have been fighting for more than a week to have his body returned to them.

Prominent Russians released videos calling on authorities to release the body and Western nations have hit Russia with more sanctions as punishment for Navalny’s death as well as for the second anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine.

Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, has been in the Arctic region for more than a week, demanding that Russian authorities return the body of her son to her.

“The funeral is still pending,” Yarmysh tweeted, questioning whether authorities will allow it to go ahead “as the family wants and as Alexei deserves.”

Earlier Saturday, Navalny’s widow said in a video that Navalny’s mother was being “literally tortured” by authorities who had threatened to bury Navalny in the Arctic prison. They, she said, suggested to his mother that she did not have much time to make a decision because the body is decomposing, Navalnaya said.

“Give us the body of my husband,” Navalnaya said earlier Saturday. “You tortured him alive, and now you keep torturing him dead. You mock the remains of the dead.”

Reuters and AP