Group appeals to UN Rights Commissioner on behalf of Jan. 6 prisoners

by WorldTribune Staff, August 29, 2021

The Look Ahead America organization has appealed to the United Nations to intervene against the Biden Administration on behalf of Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol protest detainees.

“Today I write in support of basic human rights for a specific group of Americans who have been disparately and inhumanely treated by their government – singled out, imprisoned, and even physically abused – because of their political beliefs,” Matt Braynard, executive director of Look Ahead America, wrote in a complaint to the UN.

The complaint is addressed to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Human Rights Council Branch complaints procedure unit.

Braynard said his organization already has sought relief from “several members” of the government, as well as other human rights advocacy groups, but “we have been largely ignored, and human rights violations continue unabated, with no relief in sight.”

Look Ahead America cited about 80 political prisoners who are being “unlawfully held and abused in custody throughout the United States of America because of alleged illegal activities occurring at the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021.”

The complaint noted: “In an affront to basic human and Constitutional rights, the left wing of the United States political machine has begun a purge of its opponents which runs unabated today. The United States government, specifically the U.S. Department of Justice and its many component offices and bureaus, ignore U.S. and International law by and through its treatment of those who participated in a rally in support of freedom, fair elections, and right-wing conservative values. Those being hunted down and viciously punished through selective prosecutions, Constitutional rights abuses, criminal law and procedure violations, and actual physical torture are victims of nothing less than an out-of-control political machine bent on annihilation of their supposed opponents. If left unabated and unchecked, these abuses will only escalate as the perpetrators become more emboldened by the apathetic and powerless.”

The request, which was also joined by Cara Castronuova of Citizens Against Political Persecution, seeks assistance from the UN in getting the U.S. government “to immediately release pretrial detainees, investigate and prosecute their abuse, and halt all further arrests and prosecutions pending a thorough and meaningful bipartisan investigation into the prosecution of protesters.”

There were, the request notes, “a small number of people” who entered the building. “A small percentage of those individuals are now alleged to have engaged in violent criminal acts and/or destruction of property, while the overwhelming majority of rally attendees remained outside, lawfully and peacefully rallying, and largely oblivious to the events transpiring inside the Capitol.”

To date, no one has been charged with sedition or insurrection, or entering the Capitol building with a firearm.

“Most of those arrested were not alleged to have committed any violent acts, theft, destruction, or looting,” the request notes. Most, in fact, have been accused of “unlawful entry” or “disorderly conduct.”


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