CLOSED: India: Dr Binayak Sen

Dr Sen was granted bail by the Supreme Court on 15 April and released three days later. He was welcomed by members of his family and scores of supporters.

The 61-year-old prisoner of conscience had been held in Raipur prison in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh since 24 December after a district court convicted him of collaborating with armed Maoists and sentenced him to life. We believe the charges against him are baseless and politically-motivated. Dr Sen has been instrumental in highlighting human rights violations in Chhattisgarh and has been an outspoken critic of the state government's counter-insurgency policies.

Though we welcome his release on bail, we ask you to join us for one more action, to call for his conviction and sentence to be overturned and to urge the Chhattisgarh government to end the harassment of human rights defenders in the state.

Background Information

Dr Binayak Sen is a medical doctor and vice-president of a leading human rights organisation, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL). Arrested on 12 May 2007, he is accused of aiding Maoist insurgents in Chhattisgarh state and if convicted could be sentenced to life imprisonment.

Police claim that he acted as a ‘courier’ for Narayan Sanyal, an imprisoned leader of the banned Communist Party of India (CPI-Maoist). Although Dr Sen met Narayan Sanyal in prison many times, his visits were supervised and facilitated by the prison authorities.

The charges against Dr Sen appear to be politically motivated and aimed at stopping his human rights work.

Dr Sen, a pioneer in providing accessible health care and education to mine workers and the rural poor in Chhattisgarh state, has been highlighting and documenting the impact of conflict in the region on the rights  of marginalised communities (including rural indigenous communities known as adivasis).

Adivasis have been caught in the middle of a conflict between Maoists and the Salwa Judum, an armed anti-Maoist campaign widely regarded to be state-sponsored. Both sides in the conflict have routinely targeted civilians, resulting in at least 300 deaths and the displacement of at least 30,000 adivasis from their homes. About 25,000 people are believed to have fled into the jungle and into the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh, which is also beset by armed conflict. Dr Sen has publicly criticised the Salwa Judum campaign on a number of occasions. Several weeks before his arrest, Dr Sen publicised the alleged involvement of state police and Salwa Judum in the killing of 12 adivasis. As vicepresident of PUCL, he has helped bring to light unlawful killings of adivasis, sexual assault of adivasi women, abductions and forced displacement.

Human rights activists believe that Dr Sen’s arrest may also be an attempt to establish that meeting or having ideological sympathies with the armed Maoist left is in itself a crime. A conviction on this basis would have serious implications for thousands of human rights defenders and activists across India, and severely limit their freedom of association.

Amnesty International is concerned that Dr Sen will be denied a fair trial. He was held for seven months before being properly charged, denied bail, and kept in solitary confinement for three weeks.

• Find out about the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), an Indian human rights organisation
• Listen to an interview with Dr. Binayak Sen (MP3)
  

Dr Sen was granted bail by the Supreme Court on 15 April and released three days later. He was welcomed by members of his family and scores of supporters.

The 61-year-old prisoner of conscience had been held in Raipur prison in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh since 24 December after a district court convicted him of collaborating with armed Maoists and sentenced him to life. We believe the charges against him are baseless and politically-motivated. Dr Sen has been instrumental in highlighting human rights violations in Chhattisgarh and has been an outspoken critic of the state government's counter-insurgency policies.

Though we welcome his release on bail, we ask you to join us for one more action, to call for his conviction and sentence to be overturned and to urge the Chhattisgarh government to end the harassment of human rights defenders in the state.

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