Amnesty International revokes Navalny’s prisoner of conscience status

Amnesty International moved to remove jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s prisoner of conscience status due to his past comments.

“Some of these comments, which Navalny has not publicly denounced, reach the threshold of advocacy of hatred, and this is at odds with Amnesty’s definition of a prisoner of conscience,” the group said in a statement.

The group did not specify which comments it was referring to.

Amnesty named Navalny a “prisoner of conscience” on Jan. 17 after his arrest.

Ivan Zhdanov, a Navalny ally, said, “The procedure for assigning and revoking Amnesty International status has proven extremely shameful.”

Skedline.com reporter Hansil Mehta has this report.