NY Protest message board 01-28-11 Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2011 15:13:08 -0500 From: Preeti Sampat <
[email protected]> Subject: Global day of protest against Binayak Sen verdict--28th January in NYC ** Warning: Message part originally used character set UTF-8 Some characters may be lost or incorrect ** *FREE DR. BINAYAK SEN * ** *Join the Global Day of Protest * January 28, 2011; 3:30 PM Indian Consulate New York, 3 East 64th St. ** *On December 24, 2010*, Dr. Binayak Sen, a renowned physician, public health and human rights activist, was sentenced to life in prison by a sessions court in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. He was accused of carrying 3 letters from an alleged Maoist ideologue Narayan Sanyal to Piyush Guha, a businessman from Kolkata. Dr. Sen (along with Mr. Sanyal and Mr. Guha) has been convicted of *'sedition???* and *???conspiracy against the state', among other charges. Of the more than 80 witnesses produced by the prosecution, no one could withstand the cross-examination and give credible testimony. The prosecution evidence presented in the court had all the hallmarks of a mischief. Prominent journalists and defenders of civil liberties have decried this travesty of justice. Dr. Sen has been providing medical care in some of the poorest and most marginalized areas of Chhattisgarh since 1981. As the state secretary of People???s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) of Chhattisgarh, and the national Vice President, Dr. Sen was instrumental in exposing the disenfranchisement and dire poverty amongst the state???s indigenous communities, as well as human rights violations by the state police and by Salwa Judum, a private militia armed and funded by the state government.