(ANSA) - MOSCOW, FEBRUARY 24 - Amnesty International has withdrawn its designation as a "prisoner of conscience" granted to Alexei Navalny after being arrested by the Russian authorities on his return to his homeland.
This was reported by several Russian media.
"Amnesty International has made the internal decision to discontinue calling Alexei Navalny a 'prisoner of conscience' because of past comments," the organization said in an email in Russian quoted by the Moscow Times, noting that some of Navalny's midfield remarks of the 2000s "reach the threshold of hate speech in contradiction with Amnesty's definition of a prisoner of conscience".
Amnesty International said it will continue to call for Navalny's release, even with nearly 200,000 signatures from 70 countries filing last week calling on the Russian government to release him immediately.
However, AmnestyInternational has not yet published this decision in any of its sites.
(HANDLE).
