The German Federal Office of Justice responded on February 11 to the letter of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office regarding four requests for legal assistance in the incident related to the hospitalization of Russian opposition activist Alexey Navalny, the office's representative told Sputnik on Saturday
BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th February, 2021) The German Federal Office of Justice responded on February 11 to the letter of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office regarding four requests for legal assistance in the incident related to the hospitalization of Russian opposition activist Alexey Navalny, the office's representative told Sputnik on Saturday.
Earlier in the day, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office said that Berlin for the fifth time refused to respond to Moscow's request on the Navalny case, which may indicate that Germany ignored the provisions of the European Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters.
"We have responded to Russia's four requests for legal assistance regarding Navalny's case, as far as possible in accordance with the European convention on legal aid, German legislature, on the basis of information transmitted by the Russian Prosecutor General's Office ... The Federal Office of Justice is still in touch with the Russian Prosecutor General's Office. The response to the letter from the Russian Prosecutor General's Office dated January 21, 2021, on four previous requests for legal assistance was given [on February 11," the official said.
Navalny was airlifted to a Berlin clinic in late August after falling into a coma in the Russian city of Omsk. While Russian doctors linked his condition to a metabolic disorder, the German government later claimed to have evidence of his poisoning with a nerve agent from the Novichok group. Laboratories in France and Sweden have subsequently backed this conclusion. In September, Navalny was discharged from the hospital.
Russian prosecutors and police began a pretrial investigation the day Navalny was hospitalized. Moscow has said that the probes were opened de facto and if the poisonous substance was confirmed, they would be launched de jure as well. According to the Kremlin, Russia is ready to cooperate with Europe on this incident but will need some information first. However, none of those countries has shared their evidence with Moscow.
According to the Russian Prosecutor General's Office, Germany rejected most of the requests, and the provided protocols of the interrogation of Navalny and his wife were "meaningless."
