[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 4 (Tuesday, January 9, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S25-S26]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Political Prisoners

  Mr. President, I would like to, as an aside, note that I have come to 
the floor many times to discuss political prisoners around the world. I 
am inspired by my staffer Chris Homan who follows this carefully. He 
told me years ago that my speeches on the floor of the Senate may not 
sound like very important issues to me at the time, but

[[Page S26]]

they are important to people around the world, particularly to 
political prisoners who learn secondhand and thirdhand that some 
Senator in the United States of America mentioned their name or showed 
their photograph on the floor of the U.S. Senate.
  It is hard to believe that this has any impact on history, but it 
does. Chris Homan on my staff has shown me over and over again that if 
I stand up and speak up and reach out to the embassies in these 
countries that are jailing their political prisoners, it can make a 
difference. And it does. Some of these prisoners, after years in 
prison, are finally, finally released. Many of them make it to the 
United States and come to my office in tears to thank me for a speech 
on the floor of the Senate.
  It is hard to imagine in my station in life that anybody cares, but 
it does make a difference--certainly to them and their families, but 
often to the countries that are jailing them.
  I would like to speak for a few minutes this morning about a few of 
these prisoners. Navalny, I have already mentioned. His fellow patriot 
Vladimir Kara-Murza remains jailed by Putin on nonsense charges and 
public fears of what they represent.
  He came by my office. He had been poisoned by Russia and decided to 
go back and protest publicly. He knew what he was getting into, but his 
passion for principle is so overwhelming that he did it anyway. He sits 
in prison today as a symbol of freedom in a country where there is 
little or no freedom of expression--Vladimir Kara-Murza. I display 
these photographs just to make sure that you know they are real people 
and their families know that we are doing our best to keep their causes 
alive. Navalny has gone through living hell by Vladimir Putin and 
Russia.

  Vladimir Kara-Murza was in my office--this man was--and told me he 
was headed back to Russia to get arrested again. Think about that as 
your life's mission: trying to change a country, change a leader, and 
fighting a dictatorship--and a bloodthirsty one at that.
  We must not let Putin to prevail in Ukraine. I am saddened and 
angered that some of my colleagues in the U.S. Congress have grown 
tired of the cause of the Ukrainians in defeating Vladimir Putin and 
have decided they want to move on to other things. We cannot give up on 
our own values. The Ukrainians are fighting for our values today and 
dying in the process. To provide military assistance for them and 
encouragement is the least we can do for a country that is fighting for 
the same thing that we say inspired the United States' creation.
  The next poster I will put up here is Belarus. In Belarus, we have 
the last dictator in Europe. His name is Lukashenko. He sold out his 
nation to Putin. There are more than 1,000 political prisoners, four of 
whom I want to mention.
  This man, Ales Bialiatski, is the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. He 
was jailed from 2011 to 2014. He came and visited me here at the Senate 
after he was released. Then he went back to Belarus and protested 
Lukashenko's dictatorial efforts and was jailed again. He has been in 
jail since 2021. He is not a young man. He has clearly devoted his life 
to freedom and is prepared to live in prison.
  Opposition leader Sergei Tikhanovsky was jailed in 2020 for having 
the temerity to actually run an election against the dictator 
Lukashenko. I know his wife Svetlana Tikhanovsky. She ran in his place 
when he was arrested and probably won that election, but we will never 
know because of Lukashenko's distortion of the actual vote. 
Tikhanovsky's wife is living in Lithuania and traveling across Europe 
and the world to plead his cause and to plead the cause of the 
Belarusian people.
  The two jailed Radio Free Europe journalists, Andrey Kuznechik and 
Ihar Losik, they, too, are paying the price for Lukashenko's 
dictatorial race. In 2020, millions of Belarusian voters turned out to 
vote for a better future, not the Soviet-era dystopia Lukashenko and 
Putin are trying to impose on their Ukrainian neighbors.
  That is what this larger debate on the supplemental funding is all 
about. Will the United States stand on the side of these people who are 
risking their lives and giving their lives every day in prison to fight 
for democracy; or are we tired and want to move on to another subject?
  I am not tired of democracy. I am here because of it.
  It isn't just Vladimir Putin's orbit where we see this fight for 
democracy. In Cambodia, there is a glimmer of hope that new leadership 
can bring some change to the country's repressive history. An early 
move that new President Hun Manet can take in the direction of justice 
would be to release jailed human rights activist Theary Seng in 
Cambodia, who is serving a bogus 6-year sentence.
  Last year, the Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously passed an 
amendment which I offered barring any Cambodian official involved in 
her jailing from receiving or keeping a U.S. visa. The easiest way to 
lift that restriction is to release Theary Seng without any further 
delay.
  And in Algeria, journalist and independent media owner Ihsane El 
Kadi, is serving a dubious 7-year sentence as part of a larger 
crackdown on free media and democracy. Such repression is a tragic 
setback to the country's vibrant free press that emerged after 
Algeria's terrible civil war. Amnesty International, the Committee to 
Protect Journalists, and the European Union are among those whom I join 
in calling for his immediate release.
  Just a few weeks ago, we traveled with a congressional delegation led 
by Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia to Guatemala. And, finally, these 
cases I mention here came up during our visit--the troubling jailing of 
anti-corruption prosecutor Virginia Laparra and journalist Jose Ruben 
Zamora, Guatemala. Their incarceration occurred amid multiple efforts 
to derail the peaceful transition of power of the new President-elect 
Bernardo Arevalo.
  January 14 may be just another day on the calendar here in 
Washington--a few days ahead--but it will be a major historic 
opportunity in Guatemala to finally bring to office a man who was duly 
elected President of that country.
  We met with him. There was resistance to the transition, but we 
believe that he will prevail. He was the clear winner in that contest 
and should be given a chance to serve.
  I am pleased to share that Ms. Laparra was just released from prison 
to house arrest. That is a movement in the right direction. It is a 
welcomed step. But we call for her full release and dropping of 
charges, as well as the immediate release of journalist Mr. Zamora.
  What we do here matters around the world for the large and small 
battles occurring for freedom and democracy. I can only hope in the 
days ahead that someone, somehow, will get the message to the 
individuals that I have highlighted today, that they are not forgotten, 
that they do not languish in prison, unknown to the rest of the world.
  We have to speak up for these people, for justice not only in the 
United States but justice around the world. And it makes a difference.
  I encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to look at the 
issue yourself, find those people who are unjustly imprisoned for 
political reasons in these autocratic regimes and give them a word of 
encouragement yourself on the floor of the Senate. Amazingly, it does 
make a difference. I have seen many released, and I hope to see more in 
the future. The time from us making these speeches, highlighting what 
they are going through, may seem like a waste of time to some, but it 
is not. It is a valuable investment in the values which we share with 
these amazing people around the world.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Republican whip.