More than 40 countries on Monday called for an independent international investigation into the death of Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny.
EU members, the United States, Britain, Ukraine, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway were among the countries to voice outrage over Navalny’s death at the UN Human Rights Council.
Navalny, 47, who died in an Arctic prison colony, was laid to rest in Moscow on Friday, surrounded by large crowds of defiant mourners who chanted his name.
The countries said they were deeply concerned about the “systematic crackdown on civil society” and the repression of political opposition within Russia and abroad.
They called on Russia to immediately and unconditionally release all political prisoners, human rights defenders, journalists and anti-war activists detained for peacefully exercising their human rights and for opposing Russia’s war in Ukraine.
