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PARIS (Reuters) - Alexei Navalny, the prominent opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is incarcerated in conditions that amount to torture and may slowly be killing him, human rights group Amnesty International said on Wednesday.
Amnesty International said Navalny, who last year was poisoned with a military grade nerve agent, was now being subjected to sleep deprivation and did not have access to a doctor he could trust in jail.
"Russia, the Russian authorities, may be placing him into a situation of a slow death and seeking to hide what is happening to him," Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International's secretary general, told Reuters ahead of the publication of the group's annual report.
"Clearly the Russian authorities are violating his rights. We have to do more," she said. "(They) have already attempted to kill him, they are now detaining him, and imposing prison conditions, that amount to torture."
Navalny went on a hunger strike last week in an attempt to force the prison holding him outside Moscow to provide him with proper medical care for what he said was acute pain in his back and legs.
The Kremlin has declined to comment on his health, saying it is a matter for the federal penitentiary service. The penitentiary service last week said the 44-year-old was receiving all necessary treatment.
Navalny was jailed in February for two and a half years for parole violations that he called politically motivated. Moscow, which has cast doubt over his poisoning, paints Navalny as a Western-backed troublemaker bent on destabilising Russia.
Callamard said Navalny's ill-treatment came at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic had exacerbated inequalities and increased state-sponsored repression in some countries.
Certain governments had instrumentalised the pandemic against minority groups to repress dissent and human rights, while in other countries there had been a near-normalisation of emergency measures that restricted civil liberties, she added.
"COVID has amplified oppression," Callamard said.
(Reporting by Lucien Libert in Paris; Editing by Richard Lough and Matthew Lewis)
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Hi John,
Since 2018, Indian authorities have harassed and targeted human rights defenders and organisations in the country.
Unfortunately, Amnesty International India was forced to close its offices yesterday. With its bank accounts frozen by the Indian Government, sadly staff have had to be let go.
This shocking and shameful act by the Indian Government, has forced us to stop the crucial human rights work that Amnesty International India was leading. Vital research on the human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir, as well as a report looking at the conduct of the Delhi police following riots in February, which claimed the lives of at least 53 people, have been affected.
However, this does not mean an end to our firm commitment to continue to support the struggle for human rights in India.
Many of our colleagues have lost their jobs this week and we’re looking at ways to support them. We will also continue our call on the Indian Government to end its shameful crackdown on those standing up for human rights in their society.
We will not be silenced by these attacks from the Indian Government. Please watch and share this video to show your support.
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Thank you for your support,
Kate Allen
Director
Amnesty International UK
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