Arbitrary detention victims urge Starmer to press Modi on jailed British Sikh | Foreign policy

The sisters of Alaa US al-Fattah, the Anglo-Human Rights campaignist Alaa, called Keir Starmer to push the British Sikh activist to release Keir Starmer since his release from prison in Egypt next week.

When Jagtar Singh Johal of Dumbaron said that his supporters were rejected by the British ally arbitrary and terrible justice rejection, he has been held in an Indian prison for nearly eight years before the full trial.

Mona and Sanaa Seif-For years after the campaigns that lasted two weeks ago, the US-Fattah sisters-Starmer’a released two weeks before Johal’a Johal’s ongoing ill-treatment for the British-Indian relationship, “long-term results” said other arrest victims.

Johal from Dumbarton was in India to marry when he was captured by civil servants in 2017. He was not convicted of any crime and was cleared in one of nine cases against him in March. Sikh Ayrılıkçı Khalistan, a banned terrorist organization allegedly a member, faces terrorism charges in connection with the attacks by the Independence Liberation Power (KLF).

The detention of Johal is seen as one of the worst examples of injustice among the British abroad, and there is doubts that the increase in free trade and security with India, which was guaranteed in May, has slowed down the efforts of the British government.

In the letters to Downing Street, the group writes: “Almost eight years and hundreds of courts did not provide a reliable evidence against Jagtar in the hearing. In March 2025, Jagtar was acquitted of all the charges of the Moga Regional Court in Punjab.

“Eight reiterating against Jagtar violates the principle of ‘double danger’, which protects people from being tried more than once for the same crime in both international and Indian laws.”

The letter to Starmer was signed by other arbitrary detention victims, including British Iran Nazanin Zaghari -ratcliffe; Her husband Richard Ratcliffe; Matthew Hedges, a British academician in the United Arab Emirates; And his partner Daniela Tejada. US-Fattah’s cousin Omar Robert Hamilton is also a signing of the main coordinators of the free Alaa campaign.

In the letter, coordinated by the campaign group correction, they say that Johal is “deeply worried ver with the ongoing detention, and they want the Prime Minister to bring the case to the agenda when he went to India for Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai. They say that Johal is faced with a possible death penalty after being accused of a confession under torture.

“India’s National Investigation Agency Courts usually last decades to make a decision. As we know from painful experiences, arbitrary detention may cause an excessive pain of mental torture.”

After Johal’s acquittal in the first case against him, the prison conditions worsened, understood. It is kept under almost total cell imprisonment and is exposed to regular searches of the cell.

The letter says: uz We call on your first visit to explain that the allied countries do not treat each other’s citizens in this way and that those who were to Jagtar will have long -term consequences for the future of India’s reputation on the international stage and the future of their relations with the UK. ”

Starmer raised his case with Modi during his visit to London in summer, but the letter said, “It is not enough to bring the case to the agenda. The ministers in the previous government claimed that Jagtar’s case brought up more than 100 on the agenda with Indian colleagues, but it is difficult to see any progress as a result of these interventions.”

Mona and Sanaa Seif say that only the repeated intervention at the highest level makes a difference in such cases. Starmer and British National Security Advisor Jonathan Powell, Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi has repeatedly raised the US al-Fattah’s case.

Indian officials do not claim that Johal was directly involved in the attacks on Hindu leaders in Punjab in 2016 and 2017, but accuse them of transferring funds to support them.

Although Indian prosecutors were more than seven years to create a lawsuit, this claim was rejected in court because they could not provide a reliable evidence to support it.

The National Investigation Agency prosecutors were seriously criticized in the decision that ogen Cogent could not collect and convincing evidence during the investigation into the participation of the defendants in illegal activities and that various alleged crimes were “miserable”.

Critics, Johal directly connecting to crimes, “CCTV images, no bank transfer record, no e -mail or phone calls,” he says.