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Political Prisoners Watch: Pretrial Detention [1]
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Date: 2025-08
The misuse of pretrial detention is an underappreciated but common tactic that repressive regimes use to intimidate and silence their perceived political opponents. It has been aptly described as “one of the most overlooked human rights crises of our time.”
As a practical matter, the use of arbitrary pretrial detention against a regime’s perceived enemies makes sense. It immediately limits dissidents’ ability to meet with others, speak out, or engage in other forms of advocacy. It makes their defense against criminal charges more difficult, for example by restricting their contact with lawyers and access to case documents. Most importantly, by giving authorities almost total control over a dissident’s daily life and physical safety, pretrial detention empowers the regime to exert incredible pressure on the detainee to make a false confession.
But international law sets clear limits on the use of pretrial detention. Article 9(3) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) makes clear that “it shall not be the general rule that persons awaiting trial shall be detained in custody.” Interpreting this provision, the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee has explained that pretrial detention can only be imposed after a court has made an “individualized determination that it is reasonable and necessary” for a limited set of purposes, such as preventing flight, interference with evidence, or the recurrence of crime. Pretrial detention cannot be based on the potential sentence for the crime charged. Crucially, a court must consider whether there are “alternatives to pretrial detention, such as bail, electronic bracelets or other conditions” that “would render detention unnecessary.”
Unfortunately, these standards are routinely violated—or simply ignored—in the cases of political prisoners. For example:
Idris Khattak, an ethnic Pashtun human rights defender imprisoned in Pakistan, was initially arrested and disappeared in November 2019 and detained for over two years until his conviction by a military court in December 2021. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison for supposed violations of the Official Secrets Act. No court ever made a determination that his pretrial detention was reasonable and necessary for a permissible purpose.
Server Mustafayev, a Crimean Tatar activist, was arrested in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory in 2018 and kept in pretrial detention by the Russian government for approximately 17 months based on the seriousness of the charges against him and the fact that he had Ukrainian citizenship. Reviewing the case, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention determined that “his pretrial detention was imposed in violation of article 9 (3) of the [ICCPR].” He was sentenced in 2020 to 14 years in prison on fabricated terrorism charges.
Mubarak Bala, a Nigerian humanist who was arrested in 2020 under vaguely worded blasphemy laws, was held in pretrial detention for nearly two years. His multiple requests for bail were rejected. Noting that the government “provided no information indicating that the detention of Mr. Bala was based on an individualized determination that it was reasonable and necessary, or that alternatives to detention were considered,” the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found that his pretrial detention was arbitrary and unlawful. After pleading guilty under pressure, he was eventually released from prison in 2024.
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[1] Url:
https://freedomhouse.org/article/political-prisoners-watch-pretrial-detention
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