Russian opposition leader challenges 'posioning'

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny filed on Thursday a legal complaint over his alleged poisoning in a detention centre.

"Alexey [Navalyn] addressed to Zyuzinsky Squad of the Investigative Committee with a legal complain about a committed crime in connection with his poisoning in the Pretrial detention centre 1," his lawyer Vadim Kobzev said on Twitter.

Navalny requested a chemical and toxicological forensic examination to establish the damaging substance and demanded footage from surveillance cameras in the pretrial detention centre, where he was affected by an unknown illness, Kobzev added.

Navalny, 43, was arrested last weekend for participating in an 'unauthorized' rally.

He was hospitalized early last Sunday with his family doctor, Anastasia Vasilyeva, saying he could have been poisoned and Russian intelligence services may have had a role in alleged poisoning.

Eldar Kazahmedov, a consulting physician at the hospital, ruled out the possibility of poisoning, asserting that Navalny's symptoms were that of an allergic reaction, a version, confirmed by government doctors who said that they had found no toxic agents in the blood of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny.

Navalny is a vociferous critic of President Vladimir Putin and is regularly arrested for organizing protest rallies.