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". Helen Taylor Greene and Shaun L. Gabbidon in 2009 that "standard legal definitions have remained elusive", but at the same time, observing that there is a general consensus 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".

AI uses the term "political prisoner" broadly. It does not use it, as some others do, to imply that all such prisoners have a special status or should be released. It uses the term only to define a category of prisoners for whom AI demands a fair and prompt trial.

In AI's usage, the term includes any prisoner whose case contains a significant political element, in regard to the motivation of the prisoner's acts, the acts themselves, or the motivation of the authorities.

"Political" is used by AI to refer to aspects of human relations related to "politics": the mechanisms of society and civil order, the principles, organization, or conduct of government or public affairs, and the relation of all these to questions of language, ethnic origin, sex or religion, status, or influence (among other factors).

The category of political prisoners embraces the category of prisoners of conscience, the only prisoners who AI demands should be immediately and unconditionally released, as well as people who resort to criminal violence for a political motive.

In AI's use of the term, here are some examples of political prisoners:

a person accused or convicted of an ordinary crime carried out for political motives, such as murder or robbery carried out to support the objectives of an opposition group;
a person accused or convicted of an ordinary crime committed in a political context, such as at a demonstration by a trade union or a peasants' organization;
a member or suspected member of an armed opposition group who has been charged with treason or "subversion".

Governments often say they have no political prisoners, only prisoners held under the normal criminal law. AI however describes cases like the examples given above as "political" and uses the terms "political trial" and "political imprisonment" when referring to them. But by doing so, AI does not oppose the imprisonment, except where it further maintains that the prisoner is a prisoner of conscience, or condemn the trial, except where it concludes that it was unfair.

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Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has the following definition:

A person deprived of their personal liberty is to be regarded as a 'political prisoner':

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Assistance Association for Political Prisoners

Burmese Assistance Association for Political Prisoners defines a political prisoner as "anyone who is arrested because of [their] perceived or real involvement in or supporting role in opposition movements with peaceful or resistance means".

Congressional-Executive Commission on China

The US Congressional-Executive Commission on China defines a political prisoner broadly as any individual who is detained for exercising their "human rights under international law, such as peaceable assembly, freedom of religion, freedom of association, free expression, including the freedom to advocate peaceable social or political change, and to criticize government policy or government officials."

thumb|Turkish journalists protesting imprisonment of their colleagues on [[Human Rights Day, 10 December 2016]]

A political prisoner can also be someone who has been denied bail unfairly, denied parole when it would reasonably have been given to a prisoner charged with a comparable crime, or special powers may be invoked by the judiciary. Particularly in this latter situation, whether an individual is regarded as a political prisoner may depend upon the subjective political perspective or interpretation of the evidence. Political prisoners can also be imprisoned with no legal veneer by extrajudicial processes or even through executive decisions in the absence of any trials or charges.

Political prisoners may become the subjects of international advocacy and receive aid from various non-governmental organizations. When the status of political prisoner is well known, it can be seen as a form of status symbol. Some political prisoners purposefully frame themselves as "the imprisoned martyrs and leaders of their movement." Which can safeguard their well-being in prison. Another famous historical figure described as a political prisoner is the 15th century French heroine, Joan of Arc, whose final charge of heresy was seen as a legal justification for her real crime of "inconveniencing the elites".

Padraic Kenney noted that "the emergence of modern political prisoners coincides with a fifty-year period (1860s–1910s) during which [modern] political movements matured around the world", also defining such movements as having "clearly articulated political and social programs" which forced the governments to develop a specific response to such movements (a response which often involved incarceration rather than dialogue, particularly under the less liberal regimes).

In the United States, African-American activists such as the Wilmington Ten (which included Benjamin Chavis), have been wrongfully imprisoned.
Approximately 3,600 British and Irish convicts were sent to Australia in the 1700–1800s.
According to human rights groups, there are some 60,000 political prisoners in Egypt.
The 15 July 2016 failed coup attempt in Turkey led to over 77,000 people being formally arrested.
Many victims of the Cambodian genocide have been described as political prisoners.
Aung San Suu Kyi led the opposition National League for Democracy which was victorious in the 1990 general election. She was imprisoned or under house arrest for 15 out of the 21 years from 1990 to 2010. In 2021, she was imprisoned by the Myanmar military in a coup d'état. As of August 2022, she is being held in solitary confinement serving a 17-year sentence following a series of secret trials.
Ninoy Aquino of the Philippines was imprisoned during the martial law in the Philippines because of his vocal opposition against then President Ferdinand Marcos.
Benazir Bhutto was a political prisoner for four years under General Zia ul Haq.thumb|Russian opposition politician [[Ilya Yashin was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison under Russia's war censorship laws for his anti-war statements in 2022.]]
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor, theologian, anti-Nazi dissident, accused of being associated with the 20 July plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, African American boxer wrongfully imprisoned for 19 years in the US due to "an appeal to racism rather than reason".
Eugene V. Debs, leader of the Socialist Party of the United States, was imprisoned by the US government for his opposition to the First World War.
Mahatma Gandhi was imprisoned numerous times by the British both in South Africa and India.
Emma Goldman was imprisoned for two years and then deported by the US government for her opposition to the First World War.
Antonio Gramsci was a leftist Italian writer, and political activist who was jailed and spent 8 years in prison. He was released conditionally due to his health situation and died shortly after.
Palden Gyatso, a Tibetan Buddhist monk arrested during the annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China for protesting, spent 33 years in Chinese prisons and labor camps where he was extensively tortured, serving the longest term of any Tibetan political prisoner.
Anwar Ibrahim, a Malaysian opposition party leader, was imprisoned twice because of a sodomy case.
Kim Dae-jung served one term (1976–1979) and in 1980 was exiled to the United States, but returned in 1985 and became President of South Korea in 1998.
Liliʻuokalani, Queen of Hawaiʻi was placed under house arrest at ʻIolani Palace during the United States-backed overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. Then, once Hawaiʻi was annexed as a territory, she was moved to Washington Place.
Martin Luther King Jr. was imprisoned several times, most notoriously in Birmingham, Alabama.
John Maclean was imprisoned by the British government for his opposition to the First World War.
Heinrich Maier was a Roman Catholic priest and leader of one of the most important resistance groups against Nazi Germany.
Nelson Mandela was imprisoned from 1963 until 1990 in South Africa due to his anti-apartheid activism and organizing attacks on several government targets. He later became the President of South Africa between 1994 and 1999.
Carlos Menem, a former Argentine president who was a political prisoner under the National Reorganization Process.
Antonio Nariño (1765–1823) was a Colombian who translated the Declaration des Droits de L'Homme et du Citoyen into Spanish and faced multiple terms in prison under charges of translating censored material.
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, who due to his Hindu nationalist revolutionary activities against the British, was a political prisoner from 13th March 1910 to 10th May 1937, over 27 years.
Jawaharlal Nehru, political activist, statesman, and first Prime Minister of India (1948–1963) was imprisoned several times for his nationalist activism against the British Raj, serving a total of over 9 years in incarceration.thumb|The daughter of [[Ilham Tohti, an advocate for China's Uyghur minority who is currently serving a life sentence in China, accepted the 2019 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought on behalf of her imprisoned father.]]
Dilma Rousseff, a former Brazilian president, was imprisoned by the right-wing military government between 1970 and 1973.
Bertrand Russell was imprisoned by the British government for six months for opposing the First World War.
Mikis Theodorakis, a composer and lyricist, was imprisoned several times by Greek governments during the years 1947–1970.
Leonora Christina Ulfeldt was imprisoned in solitary confinement in a royal dungeon for twenty-one years as the wife and later widow of Count Corfitz Ulfeldt.
Ai Weiwei, is a Chinese artist and political dissident from the People's Republic of China.
Liu Xiaobo a Chinese pro-democracy activist, was imprisoned multiple times (from the late 1980s to prior to his death in 2017) in China by the Chinese government.
Hossein Rajabian is an Iranian filmmaker, writer and photographer who was imprisoned for 3 years as a political prisoner between 2015 and 2018 on charges related to his filmmaking in Evin prison in Iran.
Ales Bialiatski is a Belarusian pro-democracy activist and prisoner of conscience known for his work with the Viasna Human Rights Centre. Bialiatski has been imprisoned twice; firstly from 2011 to 2014, and from 2021 to 2025, on both occasions on charges of tax evasion. Bialiatski, as well as other human rights activists, have called the charges politically motivated. In 2022, Bialiatski was awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, along with the organisations Memorial and Centre for Civil Liberties.
thumb|[[Dmitry Alexandrovich Ivanov|Dmitry Ivanov was sentenced to 8,5 years in prison under Russia's the fake news law in 2022. Amnesty International has recognized Ivanov as a "prisoner of conscience", and the Memorial Society has listed him among political prisoners in Russia.]]Marat Zhylanbayev is a Kazakhstani athlete and activist who protested Kazakhstan's human rights violations outside the European Union's delegation to Kazakhstan; he was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Notable political prisons

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

Bereza Kartuska, interwar Poland
Evin Prison, Iran
Peter and Paul Fortress, Imperial Russia
Shlisselburg Fortress, Imperial Russia
Spaç Prison, Albania
Peniche Fortress, Estado Novo, Portugal
Pishchalauski Castle, Belarus

By country

Political prisoners in Azerbaijan
Political prisoners in China
List of Finnish MPs imprisoned for political reasons
Political prisoners in Imperial Japan
Political prisoners in Israel
Political prisoners in Myanmar
Political prisoners in Poland
Political prisoners in Russia
Political prisoners in Saudi Arabia
Political prisoners in Syria
Political prisoners in the United States
Political prisoners in Venezuela

Political prisoner

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

Assistance Association for Political Prisoners

Congressional-Executive Commission on China

Notable political prisons

By country

See also

References

Further reading

External links