DUBLIN-BASED human rights organisation Front Line has called on the Indian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release a paediatrician and human rights activist who was sentenced to life for sedition last month.
In a letter to Indian president Pratibha Patil, Front Line director Mary Lawlor said her organisation believed the charges against Dr Binayak Sen were politically motivated and a direct result of his “legitimate and peaceful” work in defence of human rights.
Prosecutors had accused Dr Sen, who has been internationally recognised for his efforts to provide healthcare to the rural poor, of aiding Maoist rebels in Chhattisgarh, a mineral-rich state in central India.
He denied all charges but was found guilty of sedition and conspiracy.
The judgment, which Dr Sen’s supporters say was based on planted evidence and concocted testimonies, and the sentence have sparked controversy in India. Among those who have criticised the ruling are Indian economist and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and Noam Chomsky.
Amnesty International said it violated international standards.
In his capacity as vice-president of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties human rights group, Dr Sen helped document atrocities carried out by the Salwa Judum, a state-sponsored militia which emerged in 2005 to counter Maoist influence in Chhattisgarh.
Ms Lawlor said the sentence, imposed on December 24th, was “intentionally harsh” in an attempt to dissuade all human rights defenders in India from speaking out against violations.
She reminded President Patil that a UN declaration on the rights of individuals and groups promoting and protecting human rights, adopted in 1998, recognised the “legitimacy of the activities of human rights defenders, their right to freedom of association and to carry out their activities without fear of reprisals”.
Front Line took up Dr Sen’s case when he was first detained in 2007. During his 22-month detention until his release on bail in May 2009, the Irish human rights group raised the issue of his imprisonment and the denial to him of adequate medical treatment.
As well as lobbying authorities in India at the time, Front Line also raised Dr Sen’s case through the EU, Department of Foreign Affairs and Indian embassy in Dublin. The UN’s special rapporteur on human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya, is to begin an 11-day visit to India next week. Front Line has requested that she raise the case with the authorities.