Interfax: Russia has political prisoners, head of rights council says

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Interfax – Moscow, October 29, 2013) Head of the Human Rights Council (HRC) under the Russian president Mikhail Fedotov has expressed the view that there are political prisoners in present-day Russia and they should be amnestied.

“There are political prisoners in present-day Russia. The human rights community, include one abroad, has a view on this, and it clearly says that we do have political prisoners,” Fedotov told Interfax on Tuesday (29 October).

He also said that a line has to be drawn under the past 20 years in the country’s development. “It was a hard two decades, very hard years, and periods of this kind everywhere in the world involve lawlessness, plundering and seizures and redistribution of property. It is very important to draw a line under this and say that we are not going to live in this way any longer but will live strictly in accordance with the law,” Fedotov said. “Then there will be no political trials or political prisoners in Russia,” the HRC head added.

He believes that time has come to declare a wide-ranging amnesty based on the principle of mitigating punishment for all those who committed nonviolent crimes without severe consequences. Fedotov said the amnesty draft had been handed to the Russian leadership. “We have so far received no response from the authorities to the package of documents that we handed in,” he told the agency.

For his part, Russian Human Rights Commissioner Vladimir Lukin told Interfax on Tuesday: “Many individuals currently in prison or under investigation should be released”.

He said he found it hard to pass judgment on whether there were currently any political prisoners in Russia. “I do not like binding definitions. Some respected human rights organizations believe there are political prisoners and others believe there are none,” Lukin said.

At the same time the ombudsman said that those prosecuted in the “Bolotnaya case” (over clashes between police and protesters at the end of an authorized rally in May 2012, on the eve of President Vladimir Putin’s inauguration) should be amnestied. “It is a controversial story. There were people there who clearly broke the law and resisted law-enforcement bodies. The police did not act quite right either at crucial moments. This is a separate and very serious story. I am profoundly convinced, however, that the people currently in custody in this case should be released under amnesty,” Lukin said.

The “Reclaiming Names” event began next to the Solovetskiy Stone (monument to victims of Soviet-era political persecution) in Lubyanskaya Ploshchad (square in central Moscow, the address of the KGB, now the Russian Federal Security Service) on Tuesday. The event was opened by Lukin, who read out the names of several political prisoners executed in the Soviet era; Fedotov then took over.

The reading out of the names of victims of political persecution continues now. According to the organizers, the event will last until 2200 hours (1800 gmt). Several dozen people are currently queuing by the Solovetskiy Stone to read out the names of victims of political persecution. (Passage omitted)

The day of memory of victims of political persecution is marked on 30 October. (Passage omitted)

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