The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Wednesday called on Russia to carry out an investigation into the poisoning of the main Russian political opponent Alexei Navalny, now imprisoned, in 2020.
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In a resolution adopted by 86 votes (14 against, 5 abstentions) at the PACE’s quarterly plenary session in Strasbourg, parliamentarians from the 47 member states of the Council of Europe called on Russia to release Alexei Navalny, conduct an “independent investigation” without the participation of the Russian secret service (FSB) into his poisoning and to agree to a visit by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
“This report proves, on medical and scientific sources, the poisoning of Alexeï Navalny on Russian territory and gives the facts a legal qualification”, explained to AFP the French deputy LREM from Hauts-de-Seine Jacques. Mayor, rapporteur for the text, who was banned from traveling to Russia, but had access to the medical analyzes of the Russian opponent.
In August 2020, Alexei Navalny was the victim of serious poisoning in Siberia, for which he holds President Vladimir Putin responsible. Treated in Germany, he was arrested in January 2021 upon his return to Moscow. Russia has never opened an investigation into this assassination attempt, claiming to have no clues to that effect.
“Through Navalny, it is obviously all the political prisoners who are concerned, it is ultimately to all of them that we dedicate this report”, underlined Jacques Maire, at the end of the debate which was held on Wednesday in the hemicycle of the Council of Europe.
“If we want to know the whole truth, it belongs to only one country, Russia,” he concluded.
Without binding powers, the PACE is a discussion body bringing together delegations of parliamentarians from the 47 member states of the Council of Europe. Holding four plenary sessions a year in Strasbourg, it issues recommendations or calls governments to account in terms of human rights.