Navalny affair: UN demands "thorough" and "independent" investigation of Moscow
The High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, on International Humanitarian Day, August 19, 2020. Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP
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While the Russian opponent, Alexeï Navalny, came out of a coma, without German doctors knowing what the consequences of his poisoning in Novichok will be, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights asked on Tuesday, September 8 in Moscow the opening of an "independent" investigation: Michelle Bachelet does not formally accuse the Russian power, but does not exonerate it either.
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With our correspondent in Geneva,
Jérémie Lanche
Novichok is not just any poison, said
High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet in a
press
release
saying that "
getting
" is not easy.
A relative of
Alexeï Navalny
believes that using this nerve agent is also like leaving an autograph at the scene of the crime:
that of the Kremlin
.
The High Commissioner, through her spokesperson Rupert Colville, does not go that far, however.
“
Before being poisoned, Alexeï Navalny was regularly harassed, arrested and assaulted, by the Russian authorities or by strangers.
The state clearly should have protected him, even if he was a thorn in the side of the government
, he says.
As the High Commissioner says, it simply cannot be denied that Alexei Navalny was poisoned.
As it cannot be denied that this assassination attempt must be
the subject of a serious
independent, impartial and transparent
investigation
.
"
In her statement, the High Commissioner said she was "
deeply concerned
" by "
the number of cases of poisoning or other forms of targeted assassination of Russian citizens or ex-citizens, in Russia or elsewhere
" in recent years.
In particular
Sergei Skripal
,
Alexandre Litvinenko
,
Boris Nemtsov
and
Anna Politovskaïa
... The recurring failure of the Russian justice to condemn the guilty of these crimes is difficult to justify, still deplores Michèle Bachelet.
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