Amnesty International revokes Kremlin critic Navalny's 'prisoner of conscience' status

[Jose Garcia]

Source: Reuters

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Amnesty International no longer considers jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny a "prisoner of conscience" due to past comments he made that qualify as advocacy of hatred, the group said.

Amnesty, however, still believes that Navalny should be freed from jail, that he has committed no crime and that he is being persecuted for his campaigning and outspoken criticism of President Vladimir Putin and his government, it said.

The 44-year-old Russian opposition politician was flown to Germany last August to recover from a near-fatal poisoning in Siberia with what many Western nations said was a nerve agent.

He was arrested on his return to Russia last month and sentenced to jail for parole violations he called trumped up. He is set to spend just over two-and-a-half years behind bars. The West has demanded his release; Russia says that is meddling.

Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/amnesty-international-revokes-kremlin-critic-133440307.html

[flibbitygiblets]

1. Ah, Russia with the gaslighting. So WE are the ones meddling, eh Russia?

[Mr. Evil]

2. Meddling.

Wouldn't it be nice if governments simply spent the better part of each day finding new and better ways to improve our quality of life and standard of living? You know, what they're supposed to do.

Yeah, right. Who am I kidding. At least with President Biden so far, we seem to be heading a little more toward that path for the first time in decades.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. "decades"? How soon you forgot President Barack Obama.

Obama was President less than 5 years ago. Perhaps he did not align with your views.

[Mr. Evil]

9. Really?

The only problem I had with President Obama is that he spent the better part of his first 2 years trying to get the republicans to like him. Other than that he did an exceptional job. You didn't notice my compliment of President Biden in reference to my 'views.' And since the OP was in reference to Russia and Putin's treatment of Navalny and basically an indictment of Putin's policies in general I was referring to that mostly. Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Myanmar, et al need human rights improvement. I never mentioned President Obama. I only stated "governments." You assumed I was dissing President Obama. I was generalizing "governments." Could be theirs, ours or any government. Thanks for playing!

[orangecrush]

3. Someone get some rubles?

Or threats, perhaps?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. What, you think the video is a deep fake?

[SunSeeker]

4. Wow. There goes Amnesty International's credibility!

If Navalny is not a prisoner of conscience, nobody is.

I mean, if you acknowledge that he is being kept prisoner for political reasons, not for any crime he committed, then by definition he is a prisoner of conscience.

Hating Vladimir Putin is not a hate crime; it is a mark of decency.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. You did not read the article it seems.

1) A political prisoner does not equate to a prisoner of conscience.

2) They did not condemn him for "hating" Putin. They condemn him for something else. Read the article.

3) AI is still fighting to have him released. Read the article.

[AZSkiffyGeek]

10. Thanks for posting this

I was in Amnesty in college and "Prisoner of Conscience" is a very specific term, and those given it have certain criteria they have to meet.
For example, Nelson Mandela was not a prisoner of conscience due to his involvement with terrorist activities in the 60s.

[SunSeeker]

11. That fine point will be lost on the vast majority of people who are unfamiliar with AI rules

Most people weren't in Amnesty in college. But they can read a headline. This helps Putin and subverts AI's mission. Stupid move.

[AZSkiffyGeek]

12. So it's Amnesty's fault and not the headline writer or the person who can't be bothered to read?

Sorry. Amnesty has a definition of "Prisoner of Conscience." It's not their fault that you can't be bothered to find out what that is before blaming them.

[SunSeeker]

14. It's Amnesty's fault for flip flopping without explicitly saying why.

I did read that article. It was a stupid move by AI. AI did not say what Navalny said or when he allegedly said it

AI only offers the vague allusions to "hate" speech. If it was really that 2007 statement about immigration, as the author of the article suggests, why the fuck did AI give Navalny prisoner of conscience status on Jan. 17 in the first place?

Giving him the status then taking it away at this crucial time, without explicitly stating what Navalny said in the ensuing month to deserve the revocation, does so much more harm than good.

The only hate Navalny has displayed to most people's knowledge is toward Putin. So by AI revoking Navalny's status as a prisoner of conscience, they have gifted Putin a propaganda coup, and set back the democracy movement in Russia, not to mention making it much more likely Navalny will stay in jail. So AI's continued "fighting" for his release hardly compensates for the damage their blunder has done.

[AZSkiffyGeek]

15. Human Rights group's fault, got it!

[SunSeeker]

16. Yes, for gifting Putin a propaganda coup.

Seriously, do you think AI's flip flop helped anything, let alone AI's credibility?

[SunSeeker]

13. I did read that. It was a stupid move by AI. AI did not say what Navalny said or when.

AI only offers the vague allusions to "hate" speech. If it was really that 2007 statement about immigration, as the author of the article suggests, why the fuck did AI give Navalny prisoner of conscience status on Jan. 17 in the first place?

Giving him the status then taking it away at this crucial time, without explicitly stating what Navalny said in the ensuing month to deserve the revocation, does so much more harm than good.

The only hate Navalny has displayed to most people's knowledge is toward Putin. So by AI revoking Navalny's status as a prisoner of conscience, they have gifted Putin a propaganda coup, and set back the democracy movement in Russia, not to mention making it much more likely Navalny will stay in jail. So AI's continued "fighting" for his release hardly compensates for the damage their blunder has done.