The Guardian reports on the UK government’s decision not call for the release of Reprieve’s client Jagtar Singh Johal, who has been arbitrarily detained in India since late 2017. Lord Ahmad, the minister for Asia, wrote to Jagtar Singh Johal‘s MP Martin Docherty-Hughes to say that “we do not believe this course of action would be in his best interests.”
Reprieve’s advocacy director Dan Dolan told The Guardian: “The government insists that its position on Jagtar’s case is not ‘weakening’, but it’s honestly hard to see how it could be any weaker.”
“They must wake up to the fact there can be no fair legal resolution to proceedings that began with a torture confession and have not produced any admissible evidence in six years. This is a political problem that demands a political solution, and the prime minister’s refusal to do what is needed smacks of political cowardice.”