Political prisoner

A political prisoner is a person imprisoned for political activities, or because they oppose or criticize the government in their country.^[1]

PACE definition

In October 2012, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) passed a resolution to define "political prisoner". A person in prison is a "political prisoner:^[2]

if they are in prison against the European Convention on Human Rights and its Protocols (ECHR), especially freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of expression and information, freedom of assembly and association;
if they are in prison for political reasons and not for a crime
if, because of political reasons, the length or conditions of imprisonment do not fit the reason given for why they are in prison
if, because of politics, they are in prison in a discriminatory way, compared to other people
if they are in prison because of an unfair trial connected with political reasons

Turkish journalists protesting imprisonment of their colleagues on Human Rights Day, 10 December 2016
Images of political prisoners from the Gestapo archives, Germany
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her staff at her home in Yangon
Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison under Russia's war censorship laws for his anti-war statements in 2022.
Saudi women's rights activist and political prisoner Loujain al-Hathloul
The daughter of Ilham Tohti, an advocate for China's Uyghur minority who is currently serving a life sentence in China, accepted the 2019 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought on behalf of her imprisoned father.
Dmitry Ivanov was sentenced to 8,5 years in prison under Russia's the fake news law in 2022. Amnesty International has recognized Ivanov as a "prisoner of conscience”, and the Memorial Society has listed him among political prisoners in Russia.