German bishop compares Navalny treatment to Jesus on Good Friday

A Catholic bishop in western Germany compared the treatment of late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to the trial of Jesus before the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, in comments to mark the Easter holiday of Good Friday.

According to the Bible, Jesus was presented to the people and then taken back inside the governor's palace, where he was hidden from public view.

"When the Russian dissenter and fighter for freedom and peace, Alexei Navalny, died weeks ago, this is exactly what came to my mind," Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck said on Friday at a former colliery in Bottrop, north of Essen, according to a speech text distributed in advance.

"After he was arrested in the worst possible way, he was locked up inside, in detention centres, court buildings and ultimately in an inhumane gulag in the polar ice," he said.

The rest of the world would see "his message of freedom" in eternity, the bishop said.

Navalny, the best-known Russian opposition figure, died on February 16 in a prison camp in the Arctic Circle in Siberia. It has not been independently established whether the 47-year-old died as a result of the prison conditions or whether he was killed.

On Good Friday, Christians all over the world commemorate the execution of Jesus on the cross.