Over 100 parliamentarians have written to the Foreign Secretary demanding decisive UK Government action to secure Jagtar Singh Johal’s release, reports The Guardian and The Times.
The letter coincides with India’s Supreme Court declining to issue a ruling on Jagtar’s petition for bail, despite the fact that on 4 March he was acquitted of one of nine cases against him.
“We are asking [the UK Government] to act as quickly and decisively as possible,” the letter says. “We believe there is a window of opportunity at this immediate stage to secure Jagtar’s release and bring him home to be reunited with his family.”
Reprieve’s interim deputy executive director Dan Dolan said, “this is a politically motivated prosecution of a young British human rights defender, and the process is the punishment. Jagtar has been found not guilty once, after prosecutors failed to present any credible evidence against him in years.”