This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling. You can assist by editing it now. A how-to guide is available.

A political prisoner is someone held in prison or otherwise detained, perhaps under house arrest, because their ideas or image are deemed by a government to either challenge or threaten the authority of the state. It may be a prisoner of conscience, deprived of freedom of speech. For other uses, see State (disambiguation). ... Prisoner of conscience (POC) is a term coined by the human rights pressure group Amnesty International in the early 1960s. ... This article is about the general concept. ...

In many cases, political prisoners are imprisoned with no legal veneer directly through extrajudicial processes. Extrajudicial execution and extrajudicial punishment are terms to describe death sentences and other types of punishment, respectively, executed without prior proper judicial procedure. ...

However, it also happens that political prisoners are arrested and tried with a veneer of legality, where false criminal charges, manufactured evidence, and unfair 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 and 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. Service of process is the term given to a court or administrative bodys exercise of its jurisdiction over individuals who are the subject of proceedings or actions bought before such court, body or other tribunal. ... Criminal law (also known as penal law) is the body of statutory and common law that deals with crime and the legal punishment of criminal offenses. ... In the common law legal system, an indictment (IPA: ) is a formal charge of having committed a most serious criminal offense. ... Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ... A dissident is a person who actively opposes the established order. ... The word bail as a legal term means: Security, usually a sum of money, exchanged for the release of an arrested person as a guarantee of that persons appearance for trial. ... It has been suggested that Medical parole be merged into this article or section. ...

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 [1][2]. Governments typically reject assertions that they hold political prisoners. For example, during the Vietnam War, the government of South Vietnam denied that it held any political prisoners, despite the fact that approximately 100,000 civilians were imprisoned as inmates in 41 detention facilities for civilians. ^{[citation needed]} These included non-combatant members of the National Liberation Front or NLF, including village chiefs, schoolteachers, tax collectors, postmen, medical personnel, as well as many peasants whose relatives were members of the NLF. Psychiatry is a branch of medicine that studies and treats mental and emotional disorders (see mental illness). ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... Nacht und Nebel (German for Night and Fog) was a directive (German: ) of Adolf Hitler on December 7, 1941 signed and implemented by Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Wilhelm Keitel, resulting in kidnapping and disappearance of many political activists throughout Nazi Germanys occupied territories. ... Combatants Republic of Vietnam United States Republic of Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand The Philippines National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam Democratic Republic of Vietnam People’s Republic of China Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea Strength US 1,000,000 South Korea 300,000 Australia 48,000... Anthem Thanh niên Hành Khúc (Call to the Citizens) Capital Saigon Language(s) Vietnamese Government Republic Last President¹ Duong Van Minh Last Prime minister Vu Van Mau Historical era Cold War  - Regime change June 14, 1955  - Dissolution April 30, 1975 Area  - 1973 173,809 km² 67,108... National Liberation Front is a common name for guerrilla organisations fighting to free their country from foreign rule, or at least claiming to be such an organisation. ...

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.§ A memoir is an autobiographical writing normally dealing with a particular subject from the authors life. ...

In the parlance of many violent groups and their sympathizers, political prisoner includes persons imprisoned because they await trial for, or have been convicted of, actions usually qualified as terrorism. The assumption is that these actions were morally justified by a legitimate fight against the government that imprisons the said persons, including in the case of democratic governments. For instance, French anarchist groups typically call "political prisoners" the former members of Action Directe held in France for murders. Terrorist redirects here. ... Anarchist redirects here. ... Action Directe was a French left-wing urban guerrilla or terror group which committed a series of assassinations and violent attacks in France in the 1980s. ...

Amnesty International campaigns for the release of prisoners of conscience or POCs, 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 is to work only for prisoners who have not committed or advocated violence. Thus there are political prisoners who do not fit the narrower criteria for POCs. Amnesty International (commonly known as Amnesty or AI) is a pressure group that promotes human rights. ... Prisoner of conscience (POC) is a term coined by the human rights pressure group Amnesty International in the early 1960s. ...

Examples of individuals believed, (or claiming), to be political prisoners

• Leonard Peltier - United States. Peltier was convicted of murdering two FBI agents, but his guilt is disputed by many, some of whom consider him a political prisoner. He has received support from individuals and groups including Nelson Mandela, Rigoberta Menchú, Amnesty International, the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights, Tenzin Gyatso (the 14th Dalai Lama), the European Parliament[4], the Belgian Parliament[5], the Italian Parliament, the Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Coretta Scott King, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
• Woo Yong Gak - South Korea. A North Korean man captured by South Korea, convicted of espionage, and who refused to sign an oath of obedience to his captors' National Security Law. He served 40 years, 7 months and 13 days in solitary confinement. At the time of his release in 1999 he was acknowledged by Amnesty International as the longest-serving political prisoner in the world.^[1]
• 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 3-and-a-half 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.
• Oscar Elías Biscet- Cuba : A Human rights activist sentenced to 25 years imprisonment [3].
• Gerard Jean-Juste - Haiti: Liberation theologian and prominent member of the Fanmi Lavalas party. Has been declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International [4][5].
• Aung San Suu Kyi - Myanmar: Leader of political party victorious in last Burmese elections the results of which were ignored by military government. Ordered under house arrest by Burmese military tribunal.
• Pasteur Bizimungu - Rwanda
• Matt Pearce - Hong Kong
• Phuntsok Nyidron - Tibet
• Gedhun Choekyi Nyima - Tibet
• Andrei Ivanţoc - Transnistria: one of the four leaders of the pro-Romanian Christian-Democratic People's Party of Moldova who were accused of terrorism
• Mikhail Trepashkin - Russia: Convicted for his investigation of the involvement of the FSB in Russian apartment bombings.
• Cho Sung-hye - North Korea: Returned to North Korea against her will by China.
• Akbar Ganji - Iran: Former Revolutionary Guard and journalist imprisoned in Evin Prison since April 22, 2000. He was imprisoned for his participating in the Berlin conference "Iran after the elections" after the Iranian Majlis election in 2000.
• Adolfo Fernandez Sainz - 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”.
• 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 Belarusian public association “Business Initiative”. The politician has been sentenced to five years detention in a medium-security colony and his property has been confiscated. His arrest was clearly politically motivated.
• Soebandrio - Indonesia: Minister of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia under Sukarno. He was detained by Soeharto in 1966 after the so-called "communist" coup d'etat in 1965, sentenced to death by a military tribunal. His sentence was commuted to life, but he was released in 1995.
• Pramoedya Ananta Toer - Indonesia: prominent leftist writer. Detained by Soeharto and was never brought to trial. Instead he was sent to Buru and released in 1979 but remained in house arrest until 1992.
• Loncos Pascual Pichún Paillalao and Aniceto Norín Catriman (liders of Mapuche people) - Chile
• Crispin Beltran: Labour organizer and Congressman of the Philippines detained on charges of rebellion.

Leonard Peltier behind bars. ... Woo Yong Gak (1929? - ) is a North Korean former commando known to have been the longest-serving political prisoner in the world at the time of his release from incarceration in South Korea on 25 February 1999. ... North Korea, officially the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK; Korean: Chosŏn Minjujuŭi Inmin Konghwaguk; Hangul: 조선민주주의인민공화국; Hanja: 朝鮮民主主義人民共和國), is a country in eastern Asia... Spy and Secret agent redirect here. ... Amnesty International (commonly known as Amnesty or AI) is a pressure group that promotes human rights. ... Chia Thye Poh (b. ... The big Merlion statue on Sentosa Central Business District from the Carlsberg Sky Tower. ... Oscar Elías Biscet (born July 20, 1961) is a prominent Christian activist living within Cuba. ... Fr. ... Fanmi Lavalas is a populist social democracy political party in Haiti. ... Amnesty International (commonly known as Amnesty or AI) is a pressure group that promotes human rights. ... Aung San Suu Kyi (Burmese: ; MLCTS: ; IPA: ); born 19 June 1945 in Yangon (Rangoon), is a nonviolent pro-democracy activist and leader of the National League for Democracy in Myanmar (Burma), and a noted prisoner of conscience. ... Pasteur Bizimungu (born 1950) was the President of Rwanda from July 19, 1994 until March 23, 2000. ... Matt Pearce (born 1975) is a political activist in Hong Kong and the founder of International Action (www. ... This article is about historical/cultural Tibet. ... One of the few known photos of the 11th Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima Gedhun Choekyi Nyima (Tibetan: དགེ་འདུན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཉི་མ་; Wylie: Dge-dun Chos-kyi Nyi-ma; b. ... This article is about historical/cultural Tibet. ... Andrei IvanÅ£oc (born 1961) is a Moldovan politician who was among the four leaders (the Ilie IlaÅŸcu group, comprising also Alexandru LeÅŸco and Tudor Petrov Popa) of the Tiraspol branch of the pro-Romanian Christian-Democratic Peoples Party of Moldova who were accused of terrorism by... For the region during the Second World War, see Transnistria (World War II). ... Mikhail Trepashkin, a Moscow attorney and former FSB agent, was invited by MP Sergei Yushenkov to assist in an independent investigation of the Russian apartment bombings in September 1999 – the atrocities that provoked the war in Chechnya and skyrocketed Vladimir Putin to presidency. ... FSB The FSB (Federal Security Service) (Russian: ФСБ, Федера́льная слу́жба безопа́сности; Federalnaya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti) is a domestic state security agency of the Russian Federation and the main successor of the Soviet Cheka, NKVD, and KGB. Its headquarters are in Lubyanka Square, Moscow. ... The Russian apartment bombings were a series of bombings in Russia that killed nearly 300 people and led the country into the Second Chechen War. ... Akbar Ganji (Persian: اکبر گنجی , born 31 January 1960 in Qazvin) is an Iranian journalist and writer. ... is the 112th day of the year (113th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full 2000 Gregorian calendar). ... This article is about the capital of Germany. ... For other uses, see Moscow (disambiguation). ... is the 79th day of the year (80th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... A gag order (or suppression order) is an order, sometimes a legal order by a court or government, other times a private order by an employer or other institution, restricting information or comment from being made public. ... Jennifer Latheef is a 32 year old Maldivian journalist and photographer working for the daily Minivan News. ... is the 291st day of the year (292nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Mikhail Marynich (Belarusian: Міхаіл Марыніч; Russian: Михаил Маринич - Marinich) - an opposition leader in Belarus. ... is the 364th day of the year (365th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Location of Minsk, shown within the Minsk Voblast Coordinates: Country Subdivision Belarus Minsk Founded 1067 Government  - Mayor Mikhail Pavlov Area  - City 305. ... Soebandrio (Kepanjen September 15, 1914 - Jakarta July 3, 2004) was secretary general of the Indonesian Republic in the 1940s. ... Sukarno (June 6, 1901 – June 21, 1970) was the first President of Indonesia. ... General Suharto (born June 8, 1921) was an Indonesian dictator and military strongman. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... Pramoedya Ananta Toer (February 6 1925 - April 30 2006) was an Indonesian author of novels, short stories, essays, polemics, and histories of his homeland and its people. ... General Suharto (born June 8, 1921) was an Indonesian dictator and military strongman. ... Buru Island (Operational Navigation Chart, 1967) Not for navigational use Buru is an island in the Maluku (Indonesian province) province of Indonesia. ... A lonco is a tribal chief of the Mapuches. ... Mapuche test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator Mapuche (Mapudungun; Che, People + Mapu, of the Land) are the original Amerindian inhabitants of Central and Southern Chile and Southern Argentina. ... Crispin Ka Bel Beltran (born January 7, 1933) is a Filipino politician, Labour leader and currently a political prisoner. ... Judiciary Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno Court of Appeals · Sandiganbayan Court of Tax Appeals · Ombudsman Elections Commission on Elections 2007 | 2004 | 2001 | 1998 1995 | 1992 | 1987 | 1986 | All Foreign relations Human rights Political clans Other countriesAtlas  Politics Portal      The Thirteenth Congress of the Philippines is the current meeting of... Look up rebellion in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Famous Historic Political Prisoners

• Fidel Castro served approximately two years (1953-1955) for his participation in the Attack on Moncada Barracks before launching a successful rebellion in Cuba to become President.
• 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.
• 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 in 1956 and acquitted, he left the country and returned, only to be arrested again for a long term (1962-1990) where after he negotiated the end of Apartheid and soon became President of South Africa.
• Zhang Xueliang served a very long term (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 lengthy sentence.

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (born on August 13, 1926) is the current President of Cuba but on indefinite medical hiatus. ... The factual accuracy of this article is disputed. ... Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Gujarati: , Hindi: , IAST: mohandās karamcand gāndhī, IPA: ) (October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948), was a major political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian independence movement. ... Hitler redirects here. ... The Beer Hall Putsch was a failed coup détat that occurred between the evening of Thursday, November 8 and the early afternoon of Friday, November 9, 1923, when the Nazi partys Führer Adolf Hitler, the popular World War I General Erich Ludendorff, and other leaders of the... Mein Kampf (English translation: My Struggle) is a book by the German-Austrian politician and dictator Adolf Hitler which combines elements of autobiography with an exposition of Hitlers Nazi political ideology. ... Kim Dae-jung (born January 6, 1926) is a former South Korean president and the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, the first winner of a Nobel to hail from Korea [1]. A Roman Catholic since 1957, he has been called the Nelson Mandela of Asia [2] and was a symbol... Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (IPA: ) (born 18 July 1918) is the former President of South Africa, and the first to be elected in fully representative democratic elections. ... Zhang Xueliang Zhang Xueliang or Chang Hsüeh-liang (Traditional Chinese: ; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chang Hsüeh-liang; English occasionally: Peter Hsueh Liang Chang) (3 June 1901 (according to other accounts in 1898 or 1900) in Haicheng County, Fengtian province of China – 14 October 2001 in Hawaii, United States... Chiang Kai-shek and Zhang Xueliang around the time of the Xian Incident. ... Chiang Kai-shek (October 31, 1887 – April 5, 1975) was the Chinese military and political leader who assumed the leadership of the Kuomintang (KMT) after the death of Sun Yat-sen in 1925. ...

References

Further reading

• 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

Stuart Christie is a Scottish Anarchist most well-known for his part in the Spanish resistance to the dictator Franco: he was arrested in 1964 while carrying explosives to assassinate El Caudillo. He was sentenced to twenty years in prison but only served three, being released due to international pressure. ...

See also

• Armed struggle
• Human rights
• Prisoner of conscience

Guerrilla War redirects here. ... Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ... Prisoner of conscience (POC) is a term coined by the human rights pressure group Amnesty International in the early 1960s. ...

External links

• Amnesty International Calls For Retrial of Mumia-Abu Jamal
• Political Prisoners in the United States - The Jericho Movement
• Political Prisoners in the United States address list from the Prison Activist Resource Center
• The Underbelly of SEXISM in Political Prisoner Support
• The North American Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network
• Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network
• Free Jeff Luers - Support site for Jeff 'Free' Luers
• Support Daniel McGowan
• Politzeki.ru - political prisoners of the modern Russia
• Anarchist Black Cross Network (ABCN)
• Anarchist Black Cross Federation (ABCF)
• Montreal Anarchist Black Cross Federation (ABCF)
• Anarchist Black Cross Berlin
• Prolibertad Support for Puerto Rican political prisoners
• Break the Chains Political Prisoner News
• Amnesty International
• Where Is Ms. Cho? - opinion piece about Cho Sung-hye and other North Koreans who attempt to leave North Korea.
• Prisoners Overseas Campaigning for political prisoners
• Veronza Bowers Jr. Support site for Veronza Bowers Jr.
• Trepashkin.Ru Support site for Mikhail Trepashkin.
• The Institute of Justice & Democracy in Haiti Support for Haitian political prisoners
• Mapuche Nation Campaign for the Liberation of Mapuche Political Prisoners
• GuChuSum - Political Prisoners of Tibet support for current and former prisoners of Chinese Prisons in Tibet
• Alexey Pichugin Case support site for Russian political prisoner Alexey Pichugin, the former head of the YuKOS's Economical Security Department