Mikhail Khodorkovsky Reissues Call on Amnesty International to Name Alexey Pichugin a Prisoner of Conscience

In December of last year, Mikhail Khodorkovsky penned a piece for the Wall Street Journal calling on the international human rights organization Amnesty International to designate Alexey Pichugin a “Prisoner of Conscience.”

On the heels of a recent visit with the organization’s General Secretary Secretary General Salil Shetty at Amnesty International’s headquarters alongside Mr. Pichugin’s mother Alla Pichugina, Mr. Khodorkovsky reissued his call on the organization to “use its influence to fight for the longest-serving Russian political prisoner, Alexei Pichugin,” in a new Facebook post earlier this week.

The following is the full-text translation from the original post in Russian:

In May 2011, after our second pseudo-trial, Amnesty International announced that Platon Lebedev and I are prisoners of conscience. In its announcement, Amnesty stated:

“Today’s verdict makes it clear that Russia’s lower courts are unable, or unwilling, to deliver justice in their cases…”

I am grateful to Amnesty International and I call upon it to use its influence to fight for the longest-serving Russian political prisoner, Alexei Pichugin.

On March 20, 2018, I, together with Alexei Pichugin’s mom Alla Nikolayevna, met with Amnesty International Secretary General Salil Shetty at this respected human rights organization’s headquarters.

Alexei has been in jail since June 19, 2003, most of which time was spent in the harshest special-regime prison conditions. Alexei received numerous offers to better his lot by paying the price of false testimony. But to him, honor has always been more precious.

In these 15 years, a main witness for the prosecution has recanted his testimony, explaining that he wrongly accused Pichugin when asked to do so by an investigator.

The European Court of Human Rights found both of Alexei’s verdicts unfair and subject to revision. The Russian court system ignored both ECHR judgments.

Only a very courageous person of strong moral fiber could take all that and not break.

The fight to free the longest-serving political prisoner continues.

All that – and the overall situation in the Russian court and penitentiary system – is what we talked about with the Amnesty International General Secretary.

Source: Facebook, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, post dated April 11, 2018