Political prisoner

A political prisoner is someone held in prison or otherwise detained, perhaps under house arrest, for his or her involvement in political activity.

"Political" prisoner

Some understand the term political prisoner narrowly, equating it with the term prisoner of conscience (POC). Amnesty International campaigns for the release of prisoners of conscience, which include both political prisoners as well as those imprisoned for their religious or philosophical beliefs. To reduce controversy, and as a matter of principle, the organization's policy applies only to prisoners who have not committed or advocated violence. Thus, there are political prisoners who do not fit the narrower criteria for POCs.

In the parlance of many political movements that utilize armed resistance, guerrilla warfare, and other forms of political violence, a political prisoner includes people who are imprisoned because they are awaiting trial for, or have been convicted of, actions which states they oppose deem (accurately or otherwise) terrorism. These movements may consider the actions of political prisoners morally justified against some system of governance, may claim innocence, or have varying understandings of what types of violence are morally and ethically justified. For instance, French anarchist groups typically call the former members of Action Directe held in France political prisoners. While the French government deemed Action Directe illegal, the group fashioned itself as an urban guerilla movement, claiming a legitimate armed struggle. In this sense, "political prisoner" can be used to describe any politically active prisoner who is held in custody for a violent action which supporters deem ethically justified.

Some also include all convicted for treason and espionage in the category of political prisoners.

Political prisoners can also be imprisoned with no legal veneer by extrajudicial processes.

However, political prisoners are arrested and tried with a veneer of legality where false criminal charges, manufactured evidence, and unfair trials (kangaroo courts, show trials) are used to disguise the fact that an individual is a political prisoner. This is common in situations which may otherwise be decried nationally and internationally as a human rights violation or suppression of a political dissident. A political prisoner can also be someone that 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 subjective political perspective or interpretation of the evidence.

Variants

• In the Soviet Union, dubious psychiatric diagnoses were sometimes used to confine political prisoners.
• In Nazi Germany, "Night and Fog" prisoners were among the first victims of fascist repression.
• In North Korea, entire families are jailed if one family member is suspected of anti-government sentiments.
• Political prisoners sometimes write memoirs of their experiences and resulting insights. See list of memoirs of political prisoners. Some of these memoirs have become important political texts.

Current examples of political prisoners

Individuals currently held without trial

The list below includes examples of individuals who are considered political prisoners and are currently being held despite not having a trial or being subject to any other judicial process.

Name of political prisoner	Detained since	Country Detaining the person	Information (including the reason for the person's detainment)	References
Gedhun Choekyi Nyima	1995	People's Republic of China	Taken into "protection" by the Chinese government in 1995 at the age of 6, just days after the 14th Dalai Lama selected him for his choice in the 11th Panchen Lama controversy.

Individuals currently held and convicted of an offence

The list below includes examples of individuals who are considered political prisoners and are currently being held after being convicted on an offence.

Name of political prisoner	Detained since	Country Detaining the person	Information (including the reason for the person's detainment)	References
Oscar Elías Biscet	1999	Cuba	A human rights activist sentenced to 25 years imprisonment in 2003 for allegedly committing crimes against the sovereignty and the integrity of the Cuban territory.
Sanjar Umarov	2006	Uzbekistan	He is a prominent Uzbek politician and businessman. He is the chairman of Sunshine Uzbekistan, the main party in opposition to president Islom Karimov's authoritarian rule. He was arrested in October 2005 for embezzlement — charges his supporters say were politically motivated — and was convicted in March 2006 . He was sentenced to 14 years (later reduced to 10 years) in prison and fined US$8 million.
Adolfo Fernandez Sainz	2005	Cuba	Journalist for the Moscow-based news agency PRIMA. He was arrested on March 20, 2005 as a result of the government’s crackdown on independent journalists. He was accused of giving interviews to foreign radio stations and posting “subversive” articles on the Internet, and sentenced to 15 years in prison under infamous Law 88, better known as the “gag law”.
Mumia Abu Jamal	1981	United States of America	An African American radical, Mumia Abu Jamal was convicted of shooting Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner and sentenced to death although he maintains his innocence; Mumia Abu Jamal and his supporters claim he is a political prisoner.
Leonard Peltier	1977	United States of America	An AIM member, Leonard Peltier was convicted of killing two FBI agents on Pine Ridge Reservation. He has maintained his innocence and is considered a political prisoner by AIM.
Arnaldo Otegi	2009	Spain	Basque nationalist, spokesman of the banned political party Batasuna. He was arrested, along with other activists, on October 14, 2009 as a result of the Spanish government crackdown on Basque separatists. He was accused of attempting to put Batasuna back together, which was banned in 2003. Otegi had already been jailed in the 1990s and in 2007 and released one year later.
Wang Bingzhang	2002	People's Republic of China	A Chinese dissident and founder of the overseas democracy movement. In December 2002, the Chinese government announced his arrest after six months in secret custody. In February 2003 he was sentenced to life in prison, on charges of espionage and terrorism. His trial was closed to the public and lasted for one day. He is imprisoned in Shaoguan Prison in Shaoguan, Guangdong Province, China.
Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar	1995	India	In jail under death penalty since 2001 following an unsuccessful asylum application in Germany.
Emanuel Zeltser	2008	Belarus	A Russian-American attorney currently held in a KGB monitored prison in Belarus and subjected to withholding of his vital medications among other alleged abuses.

Groups of people currently held and convicted of an offence

The list below includes examples of groups of individuals who collectively are considered political prisoners and are currently being held after being convicted on an offence.

Name of political prisoner	Detained since	Country Detaining the person	Information (including the reason for the person's detainment)	References
Cuban Five	1998	United States of America	Five Cuban intelligence officers convicted of espionage, conspiracy to commit murder, and other illegal activities in the United States. 110 British Members of Parliament wrote an open letter to the US Attorney General in support of the Five.
Loncos Pascual Pichún Paillalao and Aniceto Norín Catriman		Chile	Leaders of the Mapuche people
Group of 75	2003	Cuba	The Cuban government imprisoned 75 dissidents, including 29 journalists, as well as librarians, human rights activists, and democracy activists, on the basis that they were acting as agents of the United States by accepting aid from the US government. Amnesty International subserquestly declared the 75 imprisoned dissidents prisoners of conscience.

Historical examples of political prisoners

• Jorge Luis García Pérez (known as Antúnez) - Cuba: was a well-known Afro-Cuban political prisoner until released in 2007 - after 17 years of imprisonment and torture. He has been called Cuba's Nelson Mandela. He has said he continues to fight for the release of other political prisoners and has been called Cuba's Nelson Mandela.
• Eusebio Peñalver Mazorra - Cuba: the worlds longest-jailed black political prisoner of the 20th century having spent 28 years in prison when in 1988 he was released.
• Juan Carlos González Leiva - Cuba: who is blind, was a political prisoner until released in 2008.
• Omar Pernet Hernandez - Cuba: was a political prisoner, who was tortured for 21 years.
• Mohamed Nasheed - Maldives: The current president of Maldives and founder of the Maldivian Democratic Party. Has been jailed 13 times and spent 6 years in jail for his non-violent political activities against Gayoom's government. During the time he spent in jail, suffered from severe punishments including severe sleep and water deprivation, being fed food with crushed glass and being chained to a chair outside for 12 days.
• Chia Thye Poh - Singapore: He was arrested in 1966 and imprisoned without charge or trial until 1989 upon suspicion that he was a member of the Communist Party of Malaysia and therefore a threat to the security of Singapore. He spent another 3½ years confined on the island of Sentosa, for which he was charged rent and required to procure his own food. The last of the restrictions limiting his civil and political rights were lifted in 1998.
• Gerard Jean-Juste - Haiti: Liberation theologian and prominent member of the Fanmi Lavalas party. Has been declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International [2][3].
• Pasteur Bizimungu - Rwanda
• Alexander Ratiu - Romania
• Phuntsok Nyidron - Tibet
• Andrei Ivanţoc - Transnistria: One of four leaders of the pro-Romanian Christian-Democratic People's Party of Moldova who were accused of terrorism
• Mikhail Trepashkin - Russia: Convicted for "revealing state secrets". Many believe that this may have been related to his investigation of the involvement of the FSB in Russian apartment bombings.
• Akbar Ganji - Iran: Former Revolutionary Guard and journalist imprisoned in Evin Prison since April 22, 2000. He was imprisoned for his participation in the Berlin conference "Iran after the elections" after the Iranian Majlis election in 2000.
• Jennifer Latheef - Maldives: Opposition political activist Jennifer Latheef was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment on October 18, 2003, convicted of "terrorism" for joining a protest in September 2003 against deaths in prison and political repression.
• Mikhail Marynich - Belarus: On December 30, 2005, the Minsk district court found the former Minister of Foreign Economic Relations and Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Belarus, Mikhail Marynich, guilty of the misappropriation of office equipment, which the United States Embassy had given to the Belorussian public association “Business Initiative”. He was sentenced to five years detention in a medium-security colony and his property confiscated. His arrest was clearly politically motivated.
• Soebandrio - Indonesia: Minister of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia under Sukarno. He was detained by Suharto in 1966 after the alleged "communist" coup d'état in 1965 (see 30 September Movement and Transition to the New Order) and sentenced to death by a military tribunal. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, but he was released in 1995.
• Pramoedya Ananta Toer - Indonesia: Prominent leftist writer, detained by Suharto and never brought to trial. Instead he was sent to Buru and released in 1979 but remained under house arrest until 1992.
• Crispin Beltran: Labour organizer and Congressman of the Philippines detained on charges of rebellion.
• Irek Murtazin- Russia, Kazan On November 26, 2009, Murtazin was found guilty of libel and "instigating hatred and hostility" to an ethnic or social group and sentenced to 1 year, 9 months of hard labor.

Famous historic political prisoners

• Mahatma Gandhi was imprisoned numerous times, in both South Africa and India, for his non-violent political activities.
• Adolf Hitler served a short term (1924) for leading the Beer Hall Putsch to overthrow the government in Munich, wrote Mein Kampf while in prison, and went on to become Chancellor and Führer of Germany.
• Aung San Suu Kyi led the opposition National League for Democracy which was victorious in 1990 general election. Under jail or house arrest for 15 out of the 21 years from 1990 to 2010.
• Fidel Castro served two years of a twenty year sentence for leading an armed attack against the Moncada military barracks in Santiago de Cuba on July 26,1952. He wrote History Will Absolve Me while in prison, and went on to become strongman of Cuba from December 31, 1958 until July 31, 2006, when his brother Raul Castro became the new Cuban leader.
• 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.
• Nelson Mandela was arrested for treason in 1956 and acquitted. He left the country and returned, only to be rearrested and imprisoned for a long term (1962–1990) for paramilitary offences & political activism, after which he negotiated the end of Apartheid and went on to become President of South Africa.
• Thomas Mapfumo was imprisoned without charges in 1979 by the Rhodesian government for his Shona-language music calling for revolution.
• Andrei Sakharov was imprisoned in the socialist Soviet Union. He won Nobel Peace Prize.
• Zhang Xueliang served a lengthy sentence (1936–1990) for leading the Xi'an Incident in China in which he temporarily imprisoned Chiang Kai-shek, who, when later released, promptly arrested Zhang and brought him to Taiwan after the fall of the Nationalist government to continue his sentence.
• Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his daughter Benazir Bhutto served prison sentences of two and five years respectively under General Zia ul Haq, Mr. Bhutto was later executed and his daughter assassinated.
• Bobby Sands was a Provisional IRA guerrilla imprisoned in 1977 after a shoot-out with British troops. While in prison he was elected to the British Parliament. He died in 1981 after taking part in a hunger strike for political status. 9 more men died on hunger strike before political status was reinstated.
• 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.

Further reading

• 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.
• Luz Arce. 2003. The Inferno: A Story of Terror and Survival in Chile. Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0-299-19554-6
• Stuart Christie. 2004. Granny Made Me An Anarchist: General Franco, The Angry Brigade and Me. London: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-5918-1
• Christina Fink. 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
• Marek M. Kaminski. 2004. Games Prisoners Play. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-11721-7 http://webfiles.uci.edu/mkaminsk/www/book.html
• Ben Kiernan. 2002. The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975–1975. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-09649-6
• Stephen M. Kohn. 1994. American Political Prisoners. Westport, CT: Praeger. ISBN 0-275-94415-8
• Barbara Olshansky. 2002. Secret Trials and Executions: Military Tribunals and the Threat to Democracy. New York: Seven Stories Press. ISBN 1-58322-537-4