THE UK Government has been warned that “if anything untoward were to happen” to a Scot who has faced torture and the threat of execution in an Indian jail, his brother will hold them responsible.
In a significant intervention in the long-running campaign to bring Jagtar Singh Johal home, his brother Gurpreet issued the stark warning to the Foreign Office.
Gurpreet met with MPs in Westminster on Wednesday to update them on his condition.
Jagtar, or Jaggi, is being held in solitary confinement in a prison in India on terrorism charges, despite being cleared in one of the cases against him by a court in Punjab at the beginning of last month.
He still faces eight “duplicate” cases against him based on what his supporters say are politically motivated allegations that he funded a terrorist plot which resulted in a series of attacks in northwest India from 2016 to 2017.
Gurpreet (above) said that the UK Government’s efforts to bring Jagtar home lacked urgency, telling MPs: “Meeting with us in seven to eight weeks’ time is not urgent enough.
“The longer Jagtar is in these deteriorated circumstances in the prison, it’s more and more concerning.”
He added: “Since he’s been acquitted on March 4, he’s now being subjected to solitary confinement, 24-hour armed guard.
“He’s been stripped of his basic rights: not allowed access to a TV, not allowed to speak to other prisoners. As a result, this is causing mental torture to Jagtar.”
Reprieve, an anti-death penalty charity supporting the campaign to free Jagtar, says that a “confession” which has formed the only evidence against the Dumbarton man was obtained through torture.
Dan Dolan, Reprieve’s deputy executive director, said: “Now is the moment to secure Jagtar’s release. We’ve heard about the judgement last month in which Jagtar was acquitted of all charges. That judgement completely demolished any suggested case against Jagtar.
“It said there was no evidence against Jagtar. It noted several supposed witnesses for the prosecution effectively reversed their testimony when called to testify.”
Rupert Skilbeck, director of human rights charity Redress, said: “The evidence against him is entirely a torture confession. That isn’t admissible. You then have to take into account the ongoing arbitrary detention, the ongoing poor prison conditions, the ongoing threat of death penalty.
“All of that has profound psychological impact that may well cross the threshold of torture, when you combine it with what happened before. The whole purpose of it is to break his spirit so that he can no longer be bothered to fight what they’re throwing at him.”
The UK Government was approached for comment.
