Release on bail of Dr. Binayak Sen

May 26, 2009

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), has received new information and requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in India.

New information:

The Observatory has been informed by People’s Watch about the release on bail of Dr. Binayak Sen, National Vice-President of the Peoples’ Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and Secretary General of the PUCL branch in the Chhattisgarh State.

According to the information received, on May 25, 2009, the Supreme Court of India granted bail to Dr. Binayak Sen, who had pleaded that he completed two years in prison on May 14, 2009 and had also sought bail on medical grounds, saying he had been suffering from a heart ailment and needed treatment at Christian Medical College, Vellore, in Tamil Nadu (See background information).

The Observatory welcomes the release on bail of Dr. Binayak Sen and wishes to thank all the persons, organisations, and institutions that intervened in his behalf.

However, the Observatory recalls that Dr. Binayak Sen remains prosecuted (his trial before the Raipur Court will continue on May 26 and 27), and calls upon the Indian authorities to put an end to his judicial harassment.

Background information:

Dr. Binayak Sen was arrested on May 14, 2007 under the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2006 (CSPSA) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 2004 for alleged links with the Naxalite Maoist guerrilla. Dr. Sen has been charged with “aiding and abetting Naxal activity” and accused of having transmitted letters written by Maoist leaders of the Communist Party of India - CPI (Maoist) to a suspected CPI (Maoist) guerrilla leader in Chhattisgarh prison. The Observatory recalls that both these laws have been widely criticised for being extremely vague and subjective on what is deemed unlawful by the authorities and for giving arbitrary powers to the State to silence all dissent. In addition, they include no provision for the granting of bail to detainees or for the right to appeal.

Within the framework of his human rights activities, Dr. Sen has helped to organise fact-finding investigations on human rights violations in the State of Chhattisgarh, including abuses against detainees such as deaths, fake confrontations, hunger and malnutrition, absence of adequate sanitation leading to dysentery epidemics, etc. Shortly before his arrest, he had denounced exactions committed in Chhattisgarh in the framework of the so-called “Salwa Judum” in Dantewara District. Salwa Judum - literally translated as “Peace Festival” or “Peace March” - are campaigns taken up by the police to arm and train civilians to form paramilitary vigilance units to combat Naxalism. In particular, he had denounced the alleged involvement of the police into the unlawful killing, on March 31, 2007, of 12 adivasis or tribal people.

From March 15 to April 11, 2008 Dr. Binayak Sen was placed under solitary confinement at the Raipur Central Jail, in Chhattisgarh.

In December 2008 and February 2009, Dr. Sen felt chest pain upon exercise, tingling in the left arm etc. He informed the prison authorities of this, and as nothing concrete was done about it, he informed the court about this. An application was filed in the court on his behalf on February 17, 2009, requesting that he be allowed to go for treatment to a properly equipped hospital of his choice, citing Section 39A of the Prisoners Act of 1894, according to which the Jail Superintendent is empowered to send him for treatment to a facility of his choice, subject to the prisoner or his family executing a bond and abiding by such conditions as the Superintendent may prescribe.

On February 20, 2009, the 11th Additional District and Sessions Judge ordered the jail authorities to get the opinion of a Medical Board regarding Dr. Binayak Sen’s cardiac condition so that an appropriate decision on his application could be taken. Subsequently, Dr. Sen was then taken to the Raipur district hospital, where the doctors who saw him stated that he needed an electrocardiogram and echocardiograph.

On March 17, 2009, Dr. Binayak Sen complained to the court that no action had been taken on his request for treatment. On the next day, the District Judge passed an order asking the jail authorities to have Dr. Binayak shown to Dr. Ashish Malhotra who, on March 25, 2009, concluded that Dr. Sen had coronary artery disease and recommended that Dr. Sen be referred to the Christian Medical College in Vellore for an angiography and further assessment and, if required, coronary artery bypass surgery. However, on March 26 the Jail Superintendent said that Dr. Sen would not be treated in Vellore but in Raipur. On March 31, the jail authorities tried to take Dr. Binayak Sen to Escorts Hospital in Raipur, but he refused in writing to go there, saying that he did not wish to be treated in a facility in Chhattisgarh as decided by the Jail Superintendent.

Action requested:

Please write to the Indian authorities and ask them to:

1. Take all necessary measures to guarantee, in all circumstances, the physical and psychological integrity of Dr. Binayak Sen;
2. Put an end to any act of harassment, including at the judicial level, against Dr. Binayak Sen as well as against all human rights defenders in India;
3. Comply with the provisions of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 9, 1998, in particular Article 1, which states that “everyone has the right, individually or collectively, to promote the protection and fulfilment of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels”, as well as Article 12.2, which provides that “the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually or in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration”;
4. Guarantee the respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and other international human rights instruments ratified by India.

Addresses:

• Shri Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India, Prime Minister’s Office, Room number 152, South Block, New Delhi, Fax: + 91 11 2301 6857
• Shri Shivraj Patil, Union Minister of Home Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs, 104-107 North Block, New Delhi 110 001 India, Fax: +91 11 2309 2979.
• Justice K. G. Balkrishnan, Chief Justice of India, Supreme Court, Tilak Marg, New Delhi -1, Fax: +91 11 233 83792, Email: supremecourt@nic.in
• Justice Rajendra Babu, Chairperson, National Human Rights Commission of India, Faridkot House, Copernicus Marg, New Delhi 110 001, Tel: +91 11 230 74448, Fax: +91 11 2334 0016, Email: chairnhrc@nic.in
• Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Permanent Representative to the United Nations (Geneva), Rue du Valais 9, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland. Tel: +41 22 906 86 86, Fax: +41 22 906 86 96, Email: mission.india@ties.itu.int
• Embassy of India in Brussels, 217 Chaussée de Vleurgat, 1050 Brussels, Belgium, Fax: +32 (0)2 6489638 or +32 (0)2 6451869

Please also write to the diplomatic representations of India in your respective countries.

Geneva - Paris, May 26, 2009

Kindly inform the Observatory of any action undertaken quoting the code number of this appeal in your reply.

The Observatory, a FIDH and OMCT venture, is dedicated to the protection of human rights defenders and aims to offer them concrete support in their time of need.

The Observatory was the winner of the 1998 Human Rights Prize of the French Republic.

To contact the Observatory, call the emergency line:
Tel and fax: FIDH : +33 (0) 1 43 55 25 18 / 33 (0) 1 43 55 18 80
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Email : Appeals@fidh-omct.org