political detainee
Jailed for beliefs
A political detainee is someone held in custody by a government for their political beliefs, affiliations, or activities rather than for ordinary criminal offenses.
The term implies imprisonment without fair trial or on pretextual charges: The regime held hundreds of political detainees without access to lawyers.
Distinguished from political prisoner mainly by emphasis—detainee stresses the act of holding someone, while prisoner emphasizes their captive status.
- prisonerConfined criminal detainee
- prisoner of conscienceJailed for beliefs, not crimes
- dissidentOpposer of established systems
- activistVigorous cause champion
- jailedConfined in prison
asylum · persecution · interrogation · secret police · cell · amnesty · conscience · free speech · resistance · oppression · regime · forced disappearance · freedom · torture · gulag · hunger strike · solidarity · release
political detaineeconvicted felon
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