Amnesty International on Tuesday recognized Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of the Russian election watchdog Golos (“Voice”), as a prisoner of conscience.

Melkonyants was arrested on August 17, 2023, shortly before the start of federal and local elections and the 2024 presidential campaign. He was charged with “organizing the activities of an undesirable organization” and could face up to six years imprisonment if found guilty. Amnesty has called upon the Russian authorities to drop all charges against Melkonyants and to release him “immediately and unconditionally.”

Amnesty claims that Melkonyants’ prosecution and arrest were politically motivated for his role in promoting electoral transparency in Russia, with the organization’s Deputy Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia decrying his continued detention as “an affront to justice and human rights”. In its report, Amnesty cited numerous violations against Melkonyant’s civil rights after his arrest, including his right to a fair trial, and extensions of his detention beyond the one-year maximum allowable period under Russian law, which should occur only in “exceptional cases, with respect to the persons accused of especially grave crimes.”

In 2013, Golos Association was one of the first groups to be labelled as a “foreign agent” organization under Russia’s expanding legal framework on “foreign agent” organizations and “undesirable” NGOs, which the European Court of Human Rights ruled as breaching key rights protected under the European Convention on Human Rights. According to the court, the framework provides Russian authorities with “unlimited discretion” to label organizations with the “foreign agent” label, which carries a significant stigma in Russian society. Organizations and individuals labelled under the laws would face severe limits on their civil and political participation in addition to financial scrutiny. Russia withdrew from the Convention in 2022 following its invasion of Ukraine.

As an organization, Golos has faced increasing governmental pressure in Russia. As a result, its executive director, Liliya Shibanova left Russia, and the Golos Association officially dissolved as an organization in 2016, being continued by the current Golos Movement. Around the time of Melkoyant’s arrest, authorities searched the homes and offices of Golos associates. In response, Golos issued a statement claiming that “[t]he true purpose of this attack is to hinder public observation during the single voting day in September 2023 and presidential election in March 2024.” In March, Golos denounced the 2024 Russian presidential election as the most unconstitutional in history.