MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th February, 2021) � Amnesty International said it decided to suspend the status of prisoner of conscience for Russian opposition activist Alexey Navalny based on thorough review and analysis, which established contradiction with the NGO's principles, rather than the alleged outside pressure.
Earlier this week, the human rights group announced that it had reconsidered the Navalny case and determined that he could not be referred to as a prisoner of conscience due to previous comments made by him espousing violence, hostility, or discrimination, something its policy contradicts. According to the organization, after the reconsideration, it faced claims that its decision was pressurized by outside powers, in particular, the Russian authorities.
"Amnesty International does not base its decisions on POC status on Twitter threads, or on lobbying by journalists or government supporters. Rather, these decisions are made on the basis of evidence and a thorough review by law and policy advisors and regional research experts," the group's statement published late on Thursday read.
The NGO noted that its stance regarding Navalny arrest and subsequent replacement of a suspended sentence with a prison term in a fraud case, which it branded as politically motivated, remained the same.
