MOSCOW – A lawyer for imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has complained of serious back and leg pain in custody, says doctors have found him to be suffering from a double hernia.
Olga Mikhailova told the independent TV channel Dozhd on Wednesday that Navalny also is beginning to lose sensation in his hands.
Navalny went on a hunger strike last week to protest what he called poor medical care. On Tuesday, the leader of the Navalny-backed Alliance of Doctors union was detained by police after trying to get into the prison to talk to doctors.
Navalny, 44, is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest domestic opponent. He was arrested in January upon returning to Moscow from Germany, where he spent five months