Alexei Navalny latest: UK first country to issue sanctions over ‘brutal’ killing of Putin critic in prison

The UK has frozen the assets of six Russian prison bosses in charge of the Arctic penal colony where opposition leader Alexei Navalny died.

Western leaders say the blame for Mr Navalny’s death lies with the Russian authorities, including Vladimir Putin . Yulia Navalnaya, Mr Navalny’s wife, has said she believes her husband was poisoned with Novichok.

“Those responsible for Navalny’s brutal treatment should be under no illusion - we will hold them accountable,” UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said.

The UK is the first country to impose sanctions in response to his death, the Foreign Office said.

It comes as the Salekhard City Court, the city in which Mr Navalny’s body was supposedly transferred after his death, said it will consider the demand of his mother to have his body returned on 4 March.

Elsewhere, Vladimir Osechkin, founder of the human rights group Gulag.net claimed to The Times that he believed the Russian authorities kept Mr Navalny’s body out in the cold for hours before killing him, potentially with one punch to the heart. Claiming that former prisoners from the Arctic region had previously told of such deaths. The details of Mr Navalny’s death are still unclear.