By Tony Winterburn • Published: 20 Aug 2020 • 7:46
A Plane carrying opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been forced to make an emergency landing after he suddenly fell sick mid-flight.
THE Russian opposition leader is in intensive care with suspected poisoning, his press secretary has said. In a series of tweets, Kira Yarmysh said Mr Navalny fell ill on a flight from Tomsk, Siberia to Moscow – while the pilot forced to make an emergency stop in Omsk. Doctors there all agreed he had been poisoned via a hot liquid, probably tea laced with a deadly toxin.
“We believe Alexei was poisoned by something mixed into his tea,” Ms Yarmysh wrote. “It was the only thing he drank in the morning.”
Yarmysh said it is similar to an incident last year in which Navalny suffered an acute allergic reaction one doctor said could have resulted from poisoning with an unknown chemical.
Navalny, a lawyer and anti-corruption activist, has served several periods in jail in recent years for organising anti-Kremlin protests. The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Russia’s arrests and detention of Navalny in 2012 and 2014 were politically motivated and violated his human rights, a ruling Moscow called questionable.
News of his progress is expected in the next few hours.
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