| Home > South-Asia >> India | |
Nobel laureates demand Indian activist's release
Associated Press - February 10, 2011
Ashok Sharma, New Delhi - An Indian court refused bail Thursday for a human rights activist who was sentenced to life in prison on charges of aiding communist rebels, despite an appeal for his freedom from 40 Nobel laureates.
The laureates issued a statement a day earlier expressing dismay over the "unjust" sentence given to Binayak Sen, a 60-year-old physician and outspoken government critic. Sen has appealed his conviction.
Mahindra Dube, Sen's attorney, said he would ask the Supreme Court to overturn the rejection of Sen's bail petition by a High Court in Bilaspur, a town in Chhattisgarh state.
Sen worked in tribal villages and tried to rally people to fight for their rights, often provoking the ire of authorities.
"Dr. Sen is an exceptional, courageous, and selfless colleague, dedicated to helping those in India who are least able to help themselves," the Nobel laureates said in their statement, posted on a website campaigning for Sen's release.
The laureates, from a range of disciplines, include Peter Agre, Richard Axel, David Baltimore, Martin Chalfie, Robert Curl, Johann Deisenhofer and Richard R. Ernst.
In December, a court found Sen and two others guilty of sedition and sentenced them to life in prison.
Amnesty International said the charges were politically motivated and the trial violated international standards.
The charges against Sen stemmed from visits he made to a prison in Raipur to treat rebels and other inmates. Authorities say he used those visits to pass notes between jailed communist rebel leaders and their compatriots in the field.
Sen has insisted he only provided medical treatment during the visits.
Sen was awarded the 2008 Jonathan Mann Award for global health and human rights.
The Maoist guerrillas, called Naxalites after Naxalbari, a village in West Bengal state where the movement was born in 1967, say they are inspired by Chinese communist revolutionary leader Mao Zedong and have been fighting for more than three decades in several Indian states, demanding land and jobs for agricultural laborers and the poor.
In recent years about 2,000 people – including police, militants and civilians – have been killed in the violence.
See also:
 |