UN Experts Call Russia Responsible For Attempted Assassination Of Activist Alexei Navalny

Alexei Navalny (Sumber: Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - Human rights experts from the United Nations (UN) said Russia was responsible for the attempted murder of an activist and Kremlin critic, Alexei Navalny, and called for an international investigation into this.

This was conveyed by UN Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard and UN expert on freedom of opinion and expression Irene Khan in her statement Monday. According to them, the attempt to assassinate Navalny was part of a pattern of attacks on critics at home and abroad and was meant to send a malicious warning to quash dissent.

"We conclude that Russia is responsible for the attempted arbitrary assassination of Mr. Navalny", Callamard told a news conference.

"As in other cases, Mr. Navalny was poisoned by a special compound, this time Novichok, which other non-state or government actors could not possibly use", she said.

Alexei Navalny fell ill in Siberia last August and was flown to Germany, which is said to have found evidence that he had been poisoned with Novichok, a forbidden nerve agent.

Russia denies any role in his illness and says it has not seen any evidence that he was poisoned. In a statement, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Russia hoped the intervention of UN experts would prompt Germany to release data that Berlin accused Moscow of being withheld.

"We share the desire to find out the truth of this incident", Zakharova said in a statement to Reuters.

Callamard, asked about the comments, said: "Russia has more than enough at present to carry out its own investigations, not depending on Germany to provide information".

After recovering for five months in Germany, Navalny, 44, returned to Russia in January. He was arrested on arrival and sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for a parole offense. This Navalny verdict invited massive protests in Russia.

"Given the inadequate response from domestic authorities, the use of chemical weapons is prohibited and the clear pattern of targeted assassination attempts. We believe that an international investigation should be carried out as an urgent matter, to establish the facts and clarify every condition related to Mr. Navalny's poisoning”, said UN experts.

“The use of Novichok violates Russia's commitments under the Chemical Weapons Convention. It was intended to kill Mr. Navalny and thus is a violation of the prohibition against arbitrary killings", they concluded.