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Russian Authorities Refuse To Issue Passport To Activist Dadin


RUssia -- Russian opposition activist Ildar Dadin attend a meeting with his supporters at the Sakharov Museum in Moscow, March 4, 2017
RUssia -- Russian opposition activist Ildar Dadin attend a meeting with his supporters at the Sakharov Museum in Moscow, March 4, 2017

Russian activist Ildar Dadin's application for a Russian foreign-travel passport has been denied, his wife, Anastasia Zotova, says.

Zotova wrote on Facebook late on April 4 that passport authorities telephoned her husband earlier that day and told him that he is not eligible to obtain a travel document because he is involved in "unsanctioned politics."

It is not clear if Dadin had plans to travel.

Dadin was convicted and sentenced to prison in December 2015 under a controversial law that criminalizes participation in more than one unsanctioned protest in a 180-day period.

He was released on February 26 after the Supreme Court threw out his conviction and ordered the case closed.

Dadin, the only person convicted under the law, was considered a political prisoner by major human rights groups.

Dadin's plight attracted additional attention last autumn, when he alleged he and other inmates had been tortured and abused at a prison in Karelia.

Since his release, he has continued to protest to call attention to abuse and inhumane conditions in Russian prisons.

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