A person who is imprisoned for his political convictions and activities is called a political prisoner. This implies that his prison sentence is contrary to Human Rights, specifically to the clauses of freedom of thought, expression or assembly.
The existence of political prisoners in a country is a clear symptom of a lack of political freedom and, consequently, is a situation typical of dictatorships or regimes that are not fully democratic.
A controversial concept
The concept of national security is used as an alibi by some undemocratic regimes in order to silence dissenting opinions. For this reason, it is common to differentiate between two similar but not the same concepts: prisoner of conscience and political prisoner. The prisoner of conscience is one who has been imprisoned exclusively for his beliefs and has not resorted to any form of violence. Instead, the political prisoner is considered as such because his ideas are interpreted as a form of violence. In any case, in a democracy neither political prisoners nor prisoners of conscience are admissible.
Despite the fact that democracy is incompatible with imprisonment for political reasons, there have been some cases in which democratic countries have violated this principle (the case of the Guildorf Four is famous, about whom the film "In the name of of the father").
A clear example of the debate on the interpretation of what a political prisoner is occurs in relation to the prisoners of the terrorist band ETA (a Basque terrorist group that defends the independence of the Basque Country from Spain). According to the pro-ETA members, the imprisoned gang members are political prisoners, since the cause that has led them to prison is ideological. From the point of view of the Spanish justice system, these prisoners cannot be considered political prisoners, since they are in prison for the crimes committed or for their connection to a criminal group.
Cuban political prisoners
In Cuba there are people in prison for their ideas. The government's position affirms that these are individuals who have betrayed their country. On the other hand, there are groups of the Cuban opposition that maintain that their imprisonment is motivated by the repression of the regime and by the lack of freedoms (this is the thesis maintained by the Ladies in White and other groups of the Cuban dissidence).
Nelson Mandela, a paradigmatic case
Nelson Mandela has probably been the best known political prisoner in recent history. For 27 he was in prison for fighting the apartheid regime in South Africa. His story is a good example of what it means to be a political prisoner and, at the same time, a sample of the legal debate on this concept, since for the South African government that imprisoned him, Mandela opposed the laws in force and with the passing of the time those laws have been considered unjust.
Photos: iStock - cnythzl / thawornnurak
