Political Prisoners Quotes

• A political prisoner is someone who is out fighting for his or her people's rights and freedom and is imprisoned for that alone.

  Leonard Peltier

  Fighting, Rights, People

  77 Copy quote

• Iran's continued, widespread persecution of ethnic minorities, human rights defenders and political prisoners is a disgrace and stands as a shameful indictment of Iran's leaders.

  William Hague

  Rights, Iran, Leader

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• As long as the government can arbitrarily decide which substances are legal and which are illegal, then those who remain behind bars for illegal substances are political prisoners

  Paul Krassner

  Government, Long, Political

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• There should be no political prisoners in a democratic country.

  Aung San Suu Kyi

  Country, Political, Should

  Source: www.rfa.org

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• This country maintains that there is no political prisoners, that everybody is criminals, but it's just not true.

  Sekou Odinga

  Country, Political, Criminals

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• It is true you cannot eat freedom and you cannot power machinery with democracy. But then neither can political prisoners turn on the light in the cells of a dictatorship.

  Corazon Aquino

  Peace, Light, Cells

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• From long familiarity, we know what honor is. It is what enables the individual to do right in the face of complacency and cowardice. It is what enables the soldier to die alone, the political prisoner to resist, the singer to sing her song, hardly appreciated, on a side street.

  Mark Helprin

  Song, Long, Political

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• People don't even know that we have political prisoners.

  Sekou Odinga

  People, Political, Prisoner

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• Of course, no state accepts [that it should call] the people it is imprisoning or detaining for political reasons, political prisoners. They don't call them political prisoners in China, they don't call them political prisoners in Azerbaijan and they don't call them political prisoners in the United States, U.K. or Sweden; it is absolutely intolerable to have that kind of self-perception.

  Julian Assange

  Self, Azerbaijan, People

  Source: www.zerohedge.com

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• Due to the fact that I experienced personally the situation of a political prisoner, I have an historical commitment to all those that were or are prisoners just because they expressed their views, their public opinion, their own opinions.

  Dilma Rousseff

  Commitment, Views, Political

  "Dilma Rousseff: can Brazil's fighter survive the turmoil?" by Jonathan Watts and Bruce Douglas, www.theguardian.com. August 22, 2015.

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• I just find it absolutely amazing that the narrative about this situation is not put out publically in the press, because it doesn't suit the Western establishment narrative - that yes, the West has political prisoners, it's a reality, it's not just me, there's a bunch of other people as well.

  Julian Assange

  Reality, People, Political

  Source: www.zerohedge.com

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• It was spine tingling, actually, when you saw how people kept saying, "Release Nelson Mandela," and meaning really, "Release all of our political prisoners."

  Desmond Tutu

  People, Political, Saws

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• My sense, and I'm sort of guessing, is that the journalists were being classified by the government as common criminals, and the political prisoners were so resistant to being that. Always keeping [the other prisoners] as murderers, thieves, that sort of thing, which has a certain irony to it, I guess. It's a curious thing.

  Adam Braver

  Government, Political, Guessing

  Source: therumpus.net

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• If man is not made in the image of God, nothing then stands in the way of inhumanity. There is no good reason why mankind should be perceived as special. Human life is cheapened. We can see this in many of the major issues being debated in our society today.

  Francis Schaeffer

  Children, Men, Issues

  "The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian view of the west".

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• Holocaust Memorial Day is intended as an inclusive commemoration of all the individuals and communities who suffered as a result of the Holocaust - not only Jews, but also Gypsies, Slavs, homosexuals, political prisoners and dozens of ethnic and other minorities.

  Jack Straw

  Memorial Day, Holocaust, Community

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• I would like you to understand completely, also emotionally, that I'm a political detainee and will be a political prisoner, that I have nothing now or in the future to be ashamed of in this situation. That, at bottom, I myself have in a certain sense asked for this detention and this sentence, because I've always refused to change my opinion, for which I would be willing to give my life and not just remain in prison. That therefore I can only be tranquil and content with myself.

  Antonio Gramsci

  Giving, Political, Would Be

  84 Copy quote

• Hundreds of political prisoners still suffer in Tibetan prisons. Freedom of speech is not allowed in any sense. It is illegal to possess a photo of the Dalai Lama.

  Joanna Lumley

  Political, Freedom Of Speech, Suffering

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• In Vietnam we have no political prisoners. No one is arrested or jailed for his or her speech or point of view. They are put in jail because they violated the law.

  Nong ?uc Manh

  Views, Law, Jail

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• All this [Soviet labor camp for political prisoners] brings about one marked change in your physical appearance; by the end of your first year, you will have what are known as 'zek's eyes.' The look in a zek's eyes is impossible to describe, but once encountered, it is never forgotten. When you emerge, your friends, embracing you, will exclaim: 'Your eyes! Your eyes have changed!' And not one of your tormentors will be able to bear your scrutiny. They will turn away from it, like beaten dogs.

  Irina Ratushinskaya

  Dog, Eye, Years

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• Nobody wants a political prisoner, but a political emigrant is no problem.

  Alexei Navalny

  Political, Want, Problem

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• What I have experienced is nothing compared to what political prisoners in prisons suffer.

  Aung San Suu Kyi

  Political, Suffering, Prison

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• There was never in my mind a desire to give in on the subject of freeing the political prisoners.

  Robert Bourassa

  Giving, Political, Mind

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• Just saw a t-shirt at the gym said, body by torture. That's a lot less ironic if you're a political prisoner in the Middle East.

  Dov Davidoff

  Political, Ironic, Middle East

  FaceBook post by Dov Davidoff from Jun 18, 2011

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• New fathers, political prisoners, traumatised presidential aides, resolute schoolboys, MEPs addressing unfriendly chambers - we all find that Shakespeare has magically anticipated our precise circumstances. How he was possible, I still don't understand; but there isn't a day I'm not grateful that he speaks to me in my own language.

  Daniel Hannan

  Father, Grateful, Presidential

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• Singing 'Blowin' in the Wind' all the places we've been, it takes on a different meaning everywhere. When you sing the line, 'How many years can a people exist, before they're allowed to be free?' in a prison yard for political prisoners in El Salvador; if you have sung it to a group of union organizers, who have all been in jail, in South Korea; if you've sung to Jews in the Soviet Union who have been refused exit visas; if you've sung it with Bishop Tutu protesting apartheid, the song breathes, it lives, it has a contemporary currency.

  Mary Travers

  Song, Wind, Jail

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