(Brussels) “We the leaders of the Political Groups of the European Parliament express our outrage following the murder of the 2021 Sakharov Prize laureate Alexei Navalny in a Siberian penal colony beyond the Arctic Circle serving an unjustified prison sentence. We pay tribute to his memory and express our heartfelt condolences to his wife Yulia Navalnaya and their children, his mother, family and friends, his collaborators and countless supporters in Russia”. This strong statement from the European Parliament’s Conference of Presidents (President and political groups’ leaders) was unanimously endorsed in Brussels today.
The news was accompanied by a brief statement from the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, specifying that Navalny’s widow Yulia would deliver a speech at the plenary session in Strasbourg next week. “Together we will honour the legacy” of the dissident who died under mysterious circumstances, Metsola said.
The statement signed by all political groups in the European Parliament goes on to read: “The full responsibility for this murder lays with the Russian state and its President Vladimir Putin in particular. We demand an investigation into the exact circumstances of the death of Alexei Navalny. Truth must be told, accountability must be ensured and justice must be served. We demand that the body of Alexei Navalny be returned to his family immediately. Any further delay increases even more the responsibility of the Russian authorities for the death of Alexei Navalny. We demand an international and independent investigation into the exact circumstances of the death of Alexei Navalny”.