Geneva, July 07, 2021 (PPI-OT):The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has expressing concern over the death of Indian tribal rights activist, Stan Swamy, has urged the Indian government to release all persons detained for expressing dissenting views.
“We are deeply saddened and disturbed by the death of 84-year-old Father Stan Swamy, a human rights defender and Jesuit priest, in Mumbai on Monday, following his arrest in October 2020 under India’s Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA),” said Liz Throssell, Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a press statement.
UN Expert Throssell said, “High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet and the UN’s independent experts have repeatedly raised the cases of Father Stan and 15 other human rights defenders associated with the same events with the Government of India over the past three years and urged their release from pre-trial detention. The High Commissioner has also raised concerns over the use of the UAPA in relation to human rights defenders, a law Father Stan was challenging before Indian courts days before he died.”
The UN expert also urged the Indian government to release the activists who were arrested for their critical voices. “In light of the continued, severe impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is even more urgent that States, including India, release every person detained without a sufficient legal basis, including those detained simply for expressing critical or dissenting views. This would be in line with the Indian judiciary’s calls to decongest the prisons,” she said.
“We stress, once again, the High Commissioner’s call on the Government of India to ensure that no one is detained for exercising their fundamental rights to freedom of expression, of peaceful assembly and of association,” the statement said.
“Father Stan had been held in pre-trial detention without bail since his arrest, charged with terrorism-related offences in relation to demonstrations that date back to 2018,” the statement said. “He was a long-standing activist, particularly on the rights of indigenous peoples and other marginalised groups. While in Mumbai’s Taloja Central Jail, his health deteriorated and he reportedly contracted Covid-19. His repeated applications for bail were rejected.”
On May 21, Swamy had urged the Bombay High Court that he be allowed to go back to Ranchi, his home town, as his condition had deteriorated to a point that he could not even do basic tasks like eating and bathing by himself. He had also moved the High Court challenging the rejection of his bail pleas and also a section of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
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