Navalny's allies raise alarm over his health after lawyers denied prison access

MOSCOW: Allies of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said on Wednesday they were concerned by a deterioration in his health and his lawyers said they had not been allowed to visit him in the prison camp holding him.

Navalny, 44, was jailed last month for two and a half years on charges he called fabricated. He was arrested as he returned to Russia from Germany in January where he had been recovering from what doctors said was a nerve agent poisoning. Navalny began experiencing serious back pain last week, felt a numbness in his leg and was unable to stand on it, according to close ally Leonid Volkov, who said that Navalny had only been given two pills of Ibuprofen in response.