U.N. Rights Chief Urges Russia to Carry Out Probe Into Navalny Case
The top United Nations human rights official called
on Russia on Tuesday to conduct or cooperate with a full independent
investigation into Germany's "unequivocal" findings that opposition
leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with Novichok nerve agent.
Kremlin critic Navalny has been removed from a
medically induced coma and is responding to speech, Berlin's Charite hospital
said on Monday. The hospital, which has been treating Navalny since he was
airlifted to Germany after falling ill on a Russian domestic flight last month,
said his condition has improved and he is being weaned off mechanical
ventilation.
“The number of cases of poisoning, or other forms of
targeted assassination, of current or former Russian citizens, either within
Russia itself or on foreign soil, over the past two decades is profoundly
disturbing", Michelle Bachelet, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights,
said in a statement.
Proper legal processes have not been carried out in
previous incidents, resulting in "close to total impunity" in Russia,
her spokesman Rupert Colville told a Geneva news briefing.
