Moscow, Feb 24\u00a0\u00a0 –\u00a0\u00a0 Amnesty International said Wednesday that it no longer recognises jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny as a prisoner of conscience because of past \u201cadvocacy of hatred\u201d comments but vowed to still push for his release. Navalny\u2019s arrest at a Moscow airport in January sparked\u00a0widespread\u00a0condemnation from rights groups in Russia and abroad as well as from Western leaders who are expected to impose sanctions on Moscow in response. But Amnesty said it took the decision to rescind his status of prisoner of conscience \u201cin relation to comments he made in the past.\u201d \u00a0The London-based activist group did not cite any specific remarks made by Navalny, but he triggered criticism with anti-immigrant statements at the beginning of his political career more than a decade ago. \u201cSome of these comments, which Navalny has not publicly denounced, reach the threshold of advocacy of hatred, and this is at odds with Amnesty\u2019s definition of a prisoner of conscience,\u201d it said. \u00a0Amnesty added however that it would continue to demand Navalny\u2019s release. \u201cNavalny has not, to the best of our knowledge, made similar pronouncements in recent years and this decision does not change our resolve to fight for his immediate release,\u201d Amnesty said. It added that the group last week delivered 200,000 signatures to the Russian authorities demanding Navalny\u2019s immediate release. The opposition leader\u2019s team responded to Amnesty\u2019s decision by accusing the group of having caved to a pressure campaign waged by a columnist associated with Russian state media.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Navalny\u2019s right-hand man Leonid Volkov wrote on Twitter that Amnesty, with the decision, had announced it \u201cwas fed crap and we liked it,\u201d while key aide Ivan Zhdanov tweeted that the decision was \u201cextremely shameful\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 44-year-old Kremlin critic was detained after spending months in Germany recovering from a poisoning attack and was then handed a nearly three-year prison term in February for violating parole terms while abroad for medical treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Navalny has emerged in recent years as Russia\u2019s leading critic of President Vladimir Putin by publishing investigations into corruption and leading street protests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Moscow, Feb 24\u00a0\u00a0 –\u00a0\u00a0 Amnesty International said Wednesday that it no longer recognises jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny as a prisoner of conscience because of past \u201cadvocacy of hatred\u201d comments but vowed to still push for his release. Navalny\u2019s arrest at a Moscow airport […]<\/p>\n
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