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2.2 Amnesty restores Navalny’s Prisoner of Conscious status
Human Rights watchdog Amnesty International has restored jailed anti-corruption activist and opposition politician Alexei Navalny’s Prisoner of Conscious status on May 7.
The widely respected caused a storm when it revoked the status in February, demoting the outspoken Kremlin critic Navalny to a mere “political prisoner” because of right wing comments he has made in the past.
“Following careful evaluation Amnesty International has decided to re-designate Alexei Navalny as a “Prisoner of Conscience”,” Amnesty said in a statement. “In February, Amnesty took an internal decision to stop using the “Prisoner of Conscience” term for Navalny, due to concerns relating to discriminatory statements he made in 2007 and 2008 which may have constituted advocacy of hatred. The Russian government and its supporters used that internal decision, which we had not intended to make public, to further violate Navalny’s rights. That was the height of hypocrisy, coming from a government that not only attempted to kill Navalny by poisoning, but has carried out unconscionable acts over the past two decades, including torture, enforced disappearances and widespread repression of political freedoms in Russia and abroad, as well as war crimes in Syria.”
14 RUSSIA Country Report June 2021 www.intellinews.com