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Political prisoner

A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention.

There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although numerous similar definitions have been proposed by various organizations and scholars, and there is a general consensus among scholars that "individuals have been sanctioned by legal systems and imprisoned by political regimes not for their violation of codified laws but for their thoughts and ideas that have fundamentally challenged existing power relations".[1] The status of a political prisoner is generally awarded to individuals based on declarations of non-governmental organizations like Amnesty International, on a case-by-case basis. While such statuses are often widely recognized by international public opinion, they are often rejected by individual governments accused of holding political prisoners, which tend to deny any bias in their judicial systems.[1][2]


A related term is prisoner of conscience (POC), popularized by Amnesty International. It describes someone who was prosecuted because of their personal beliefs.


Some prisons, known as political prisons, are focused or even dedicated solely to hosting political prisoners.[3]

Advocacy

A number of nongovernmental organizations focuses on advocacy for political prisoners. The most prominent of those is Amnesty International, founded in 1961.[1]

In the , dubious psychiatric diagnoses were sometimes used to confine political prisoners in the so-called "psikhushkas".

Soviet Union

In , socialists and communists were among the first victims of fascist repression, later groups like the "Night and Fog" prisoners and priests.

Nazi Germany

In the , African-American activists such as the Wilmington Ten (which included Benjamin Chavis), have been wrongfully imprisoned.[11][12]

United States

Approximately 3,600 British and Irish convicts were sent to Australia in the 1700–1800s.

[13]

According to human rights groups there are some 60,000 political prisoners in .[14]

Egypt

In reaction to the failed coup attempt in on 15 July 2016, over 77,000 people have been formally arrested.[15]

Turkey

Many victims of the have been described as political prisoners.[1]

Cambodian genocide

interwar Poland[31]

Bereza Kartuska

Iran[32]

Evin Prison

Imperial Russia[33]

Peter and Paul Fortress

Imperial Russia[34][35]

Shlisselburg Fortress

Albania[36]

Spaç Prison

Estado Novo, Portugal[37][38]

Peniche Fortress

The following prisons have been recognized as incarcerating primarily political prisoners, and have therefore been called "political prisons":

Whitehorn, Laura. (2003). Fighting to Get Them Out. Social Justice, San Francisco; 2003. Vol. 30, Iss. 2; pg. 51.

n.a. 1973. Political Prisoners in South Vietnam. London: Amnesty International Publications.

. 2003. The Inferno: A Story of Terror and Survival in Chile. Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0-299-19554-6

Luz Arce

. 2004. Granny Made Me An Anarchist: General Franco, The Angry Brigade and Me. London: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-5918-1

Stuart Christie

. 2001. Living Silence: Burma Under Military Rule. Bangkok: White Lotus Press and London: Zed Press. (See in particular Chapter 8: Prison: 'Life University' ). In Thailand ISBN 974-7534-68-1, elsewhere ISBN 1-85649-925-1 and ISBN 1-85649-926-X

Christina Fink

. 2004. Games Prisoners Play. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-11721-7

Marek M. Kaminski

Ben Kiernan. 2002. The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975–1975. Yale University Press.  0-300-09649-6

ISBN

Stephen M. Kohn. 1994. American Political Prisoners. Westport, CT: Praeger.  0-275-94415-8

ISBN

Barbara Olshansky. 2002. Secret Trials and Executions: Military Tribunals and the Threat to Democracy. New York: Seven Stories Press.  1-58322-537-4

ISBN

Archived 12 July 2019 at the Wayback Machine

Azerbaijan: List of Political Prisoners in Azerbaijan (March 20, 2018)

Belarus: List of Political Prisoners

China: List of Political Prisoners Detained or Imprisoned as of November 5, 2017 (1,414 cases)

Israel: Statistics on Palestinians in the custody of the Israeli security forces (3 Jul 2018)

Russia is holding over 70 Ukrainian Political Prisoners of War

Archived 12 July 2019 at the Wayback Machine

Russia: List of Individuals Recognized as Political Prisoners by the Human Rights Centre Memorial and Persecuted in connection with the Realization of their Right to Freedom of Religion as of 29 October 2017