No sign of foul play in Russia critic’s death: Germany

An autopsy on a prominent German lawmaker and Russia critic who died suddenly at the weekend found no sign of foul play, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Conservative parliamentarian Andreas Schockenhoff, a Russia expert who often denounced Kremlin policy, died Saturday at age 57.

The state prosecutor in his electoral district of Ravensburg, Karl-Josef Diehl, told AFP Tuesday he had requested a post-mortem examination of the body, which was approved by a court, to head off “conspiracy theories” on the cause of death.

He said in a statement Wednesday that the autopsy had found “no evidence of third party involvement in the death of Dr Schockenhoff”.

Diehl said “preliminary” results indicated that Schockenhoff had died of “cardiovascular failure while using the sauna in his home late Saturday, or possibly fell asleep there and died of massive heat exposure”.

But he added that he was still waiting for the results of a toxicology report expected in the coming days.

Diehl had said the investigation had been carried out because “one could expect conspiracy theories, doubts and speculation to surface later” given Schockenhoff’s “line of work”.

Schockenhoff was deputy parliamentary leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc.

He had coordinated Germany’s policy on Russia from 2006 until early 2014, often taking the Kremlin to task for its tough stance on pro-democracy activists and the protest band Pussy Riot.

In October 2012, Russian officials refused to meet with him in Moscow, citing “defamatory” statements he made.

During the Ukraine conflict, he repeatedly argued for tough sanctions against Russia.