Sen studied medicine at a Protestant-managed school in Tamil Nadu and then worked for more than 30 years to bring healthcare to Chhattisgarh’s tribal people.
Activist’s life sentence widely condemned
Binayak Sen
Church groups have joined nationwide protests against the life sentence given to a human right activist who worked among tribal people in Chhattisgarh .
Students, academics and activists gathered in New Delhi yesterday to protest the sentence against Binayak Sen, a pediatrician and a human rights activist.
On Dec. 24, a trial court in Chhattisgarh found Sen “guilty of criminal conspiracy to commit sedition” and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
Sen was accused of aiding Maoists, who are waging war against the government. The court justified the sentence saying that those aiding terrorists deserved no clemency.
Maoists have killed hundreds of state and federal paramilitary forces in Chhattisgarh.
Sen studied medicine at a Protestant-managed school in Tamil Nadu and then worked for more than 30 years to bring healthcare to Chhattisgarh’s tribal people.
In 2008, he won the Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights. Sen was the vice president of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties and campaigned against unlawful killings of tribal people and violation of human rights in tribal areas.
One of the documents presented against Sen was a letter from the Indian Social Institute (ISI), a Jesuit-managed center in New Delhi which had been confused by the prosecution with Pakistan’s Inter Service Intelligence agency.
The verdict sparked outrage among rights activists in India and across the world.
Amnesty International called Sen “a prisoner of conscience” and noted the verdict has “violated international fair trial standards.”
The National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) condemned the verdict as “politically motivated and vindictive” and aimed at weakening people’s movements.
The NCCI, the umbrella body of Protestant and Orthodox Churches in the country, wants the state federal authorities to drop “politically motivated charges” against Sen and release him immediately.
Father Babu Joseph, spokesperson of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, described Sen’s sentence as unfortunate.
The Divine Word priest told ucanews.com that justice must be done for social activists working among the poor in remote areas.
“Their involvement and work should be seen and judged from the right perspective rather than drawing hasty conclusions about their intention,” he added.
Redemptorist Father Thomas Kocherry, who pioneered fishermen’s movements in India, condemned the “unjust” sentence and urged fellow activists to keep protesting until Sen gets justice.
Kolkata’s Forum of Artists, Cultural Activists and Intellectuals called the verdict “fraudulent” while the Indian Community Activist Network, an umbrella body for some 25 pro-democracy organizations in the country, termed it as “emblematic of gross inequity and usurpation of democracy.”
Source: ucanews.com
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