A lawyer for Alexei Navalny said on Wednesday that the Russian opposition leader had been diagnosed with two spinal fractures and that he was beginning to lose feeling in his hands.
The Associated Press reports that Navalny’s lawyer commented on Interfax, an independent Russian news agency. Navalny remains in custody after returning to Russia earlier this year after recovering from a suspected nerve agent poisoning in Germany, which the US and other countries blamed on the Russian government.
The Russian opposition leader also remains on a hunger strike over the availability of medical care in prison; independent doctors were detained Tuesday while trying to speak to doctors in jail, while CNN journalists and others were also detained outside the facility.
The Russian government has denied any involvement in Navalny’s poisoning, claiming its imprisonment stems from a conviction for embezzlement and other charges that motivated the European Court of Human Rights and other international organizations as politicians.
A Russian court has ordered Navalny to spend 2 1/2 years in prison for violations of his probation period as a result of the conviction, offenses including restoring him to a German hospital after the poisoning attempt.
Protesters took to the streets in Moscow after Moscow’s arrest, sparking government attacks on protesters.