Amnesty International revokes Kremlin critic Navalny's 'prisoner of conscience' status [View all]
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
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