DISINFO: Amnesty International admits that Alexei Navalny is a mere criminal
SUMMARY
Convict blogger Alexei Navalny is not a prisoner of conscience, as Amnesty International concluded, miraculously admitting that he is a mere criminal. This globalist organisation has historically responded to the interests of the West, so this is a real blow to those who call for the release of this man convicted by fraud and embezzlement, and makes them accomplices of a member of organised crime.
RESPONSE
The claim is false. Amnesty International has explained that it withdrew its consideration of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny as prisoner of conscience because he had, in the past, made comments which may have amounted to advocacy of hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, violence or hostility, which doesn’t fit in its own definition of the term. While this decision has been highly controversial, this is very different from “admitting that he is a criminal”.
Charges against Navalny are politically motivated and were presented while he was recovering in Berlin after the poisoning attempt on his life six months earlier, as a means of forcing him to stay in exile. The European Court of Human Rights, where Russia is a member, has concluded that the original charges against Mr Navalny was politically motivated. The EU has condemned the detention of Alexei Navalny and called for his immediate release.
This is a recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, aiming to discredit him and his opposition movement. See other examples in our database, such as claims that his anti-corruption foundation has never done any investigation, that he is being helped by Western intelligence services, that the West sent him back to Russia to prevent him from becoming irrelevant, that only caffeine and alcohol were found in his blood during his alleged poisoning, that the US wanted to use his case to block Russia's vaccine against coronavirus, that the West hopes that he dies to have an excuse for new sanctions, or that Western accusations on Navalny’s case are as false as they were about Sergei Skripal and Alexander Litvinenko.