Trouble for Alexei Navalny's brother days after opposition leader's death

Russia opens new criminal case against Alexei Navalny's brother Oleg Navalny, who remains on the run.

Russia has initiated a new criminal case against Oleg Navalny, the brother of the deceased Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, according to the TASS state news agency.

Russian opposition activist and anti-corruption crusader Alexei Navalny's brother Oleg Navalny speaks to his mother Lyudmila, left, at a court in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2014. (AP)

While the specific article of the criminal code under which the case has been opened was not mentioned, TASS said that the police are actively searching for Oleg Navalny, who was already on the wanted list in connection with another matter.

In 2014, Oleg Navalny was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for fraud in a case that Kremlin critics argued was fabricated and intended to exert pressure on his late brother.

Alexei Navalny's death engulfed in mystery

Alexei Navalny, aged 47, fell unconscious and passed away on Friday following a stroll at the "Polar Wolf" penal colony situated above the Arctic Circle, where he was serving a three-decade sentence, said the prison service.

Navalny had been jailed since January 2021, returning to Moscow after recovering in Germany from a nerve agent poisoning that he attributed to the Kremlin. He faced multiple prison terms since his arrest, with charges he vehemently denied, considering them politically motivated.

Lyudmila Navalnaya, mother of Navalny, demanded on Tuesday that President Vladimir Putin hand over her son's body so she could bury him.

Navalny's mother tells Putin: Hand over my son's body

Navalny's mother, who was outside the prison, complained she did not even know where her son's corpse was and demanded Russian president Vladimir Putin issue the order to release it.

"For a fifth day I cannot see him, they aren't giving me his body and don't even tell me where he is," Navalnaya said in a YouTube video.

"I appeal to you, Vladimir Putin. Resolving this issue depends on you alone. Let me finally see my son.

"I demand that Alexei's body be released immediately so that I can bury him humanely."

She also sent an official letter to Putin with the same demand.

(Inputs from Reuters)