Now Germany has announced that it will never hand over the medical evidence on Alexey Navalny to Russia. Germany’s Ministry of Justice has received over the months repeated requests from Russia’s Prosecutor General’s office for the medical evidence of the alleged poisoning of Navalny, which is needed to launch an official criminal investigation. It is also part of the guiding agreement on legal matters between Russia and Germany.
Germany’s latest rejection repeats their claim that Russia has, in Berlin’s eyes, all the necessary evidence. Russia emphasizes that it has received no medical evidence and that all Germany provided was an interview with Navalny, with his allegations. (Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has previously said that this showed “contempt” for the legal agreement between Germany and Russia.) The latest German answer today adds the declaration that they have provided all that they are allowed to under the European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters and under German legislation. This outrageous statement seems to imply that turning over medical evidence of an alleged poisoning is legally prohibited. So, months later, it turns out the vaunted “medical evidence” never was going to be turned over (since, in fact, it doesn’t exist).
