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Sikh Community BRIEFING FOR UK MEPs – ASHLEY FOX This briefing on a range of human rights issues has been prepared by the Sikh Federation (UK) for UK MEPs to enable actions to be taken in conjunction with Sikh constituents. The briefing is split into four parts: Part 1 – Update on the Death Penalty in India Part 2 - Examples of extra-judicial killings of Sikhs by the Indian police in the last two years Part 3 – Indian politicians facing criminal charges: True face of Indian democracy Part 4 - India’s judicial system that has failed the Sikhs The specific actions required are: 1) To increase pressure at the European level on the Abolition of the Death Penalty in India 2) To ensure human rights concerns are raised with India at every opportunity and not ignored in the interests of trade Key request: Group of MEPs to organise/sponsor a conference in the European Parliament on the Abolition of the Death Penalty in India and continued human rights violations v EU trade with India The Sikh Federation (UK) and its contacts across Europe have committed to bring 150-200 Sikh representatives from across Europe. It has been suggested the event should be towards the start of May. UK MPs have also said they will attend along with representatives of leading human rights organisations. 1 BRIEFING FOR UK MEPs – ASHLEY FOX PART 1 – UPDATE ON THE DEATH PENALTY IN INDIA Punishment by death is against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and a “premeditated and cold-blooded killing of a human being by the state.” The first part of the briefing is split into a number of sections: Page Section 1 – Background on the Death Penalty in India 3-4 Section 2 - The case of Professor Davinderpal Singh Bhullar 5-9 Section 3 - The case of Balwant Singh Rajoana 10 The death penalty is inhuman and degrading punishment. It is irreversible and can be inflicted on the innocent. It has never been shown to deter crime more effectively than other punishments. Therefore, the death penalty in India and all other countries should be abolished. India should honour Articles 3 and 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - right to life and not to be tortured or subject to any cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment. 2 BRIEFING FOR UK MEPs – ASHLEY FOX SECTION 1 – BACKGROUND ON THE DEATH PENALTY IN INDIA At independence in 1947, India retained the 1861 Penal Code which provided for the death penalty for murder. It has been estimated that 3,000 to 4,000 executions occurred in India between 1950 and 1980. However, it is more difficult to understand the impact of the death penalty in India since the 1980’s. Amnesty International reported that information on the numbers of persons sentenced to death and executed in India in the last 30 years is much harder to measure. The Indian government does not make execution figures available. The Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) reported that during the period 2001-2011, courts in India have sentenced 1,455 convicts to death, an average of over 130 a year. In 2007 the Sikh Federation (UK) supported the Sant’Egidio community and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty to collect a 5 million signature petition that resulted in United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions. In fact, the international community had moved further towards abolishing the death penalty on 19 November 2012, when 110 countries approved a general assembly draft resolution calling for a moratorium on executions. India was part of a tiny minority that voted to retain capital punishment, arguing for it being used sparingly, and in cases of particularly heinous crimes. Current Status On 21 November 2012 India ended its unofficial eight-year moratorium on executions when it hanged Ajmal Kasab and followed this on 9 February 2013 by hanging Afzal Guru. Both executions occurred in secrecy with families being informed after the executions had occurred. Pranab Mukherjee, India's President, has now ordered the death penalty for seven convicts in the last seven months, more than any other Indian President in the last 15 years. India is currently reporting one death penalty sentence every third day (Times of India, February 2013) and this before the recent knee jerk reaction to change the law to extend the death penalty following the horrific rape and murder in Delhi on 16 December 2012. Human Rights activists are worried this precedent could affect the 500 or so people on death row in India, including political prisoners, such as Professor Davinderpal Singh Bhullar and Balwant Singh Rajoana. As of 11 February 2013, there were 476 convicts on death row in India. 3 BRIEFING FOR UK MEPs – ASHLEY FOX When is the Death Penalty used in India? Despite a Supreme Court ruling in 1980 to use the death penalty in the “rarest of rare” cases, the Times of India reported that the principle is in itself faulty, as the interpretation of the principle is left to the discretion of individual judges who are vulnerable to fallible judgements based on fallible evidence. On 14 July 2012, retired judges asked India’s president to commute the death sentences of 13 inmates erroneously sentenced by the Supreme Court. This followed the court’s admission that some of these death sentences were rendered per incuriam (out of error or ignorance). In November, the Supreme Court conceded that the “rarest of the rare” standard has not been applied uniformly over the years and the norms on death penalty need “a fresh look”. How is the death penalty used in India? Amnesty International, in their watershed report, India: Lethal lottery: The death penalty in India-A study of Supreme Court Judgments in Death Penalty Cases 1950-2006, found that a large proportion of sentences handed down in India: 1. Are based on circumstantial evidence alone 2. Have an absence of forensic facilities 3. Critical use of testimony of witnesses, but there is widespread acknowledgement of the use by police and prosecution of stock or professional witnesses In addition some death sentences have been imposed on people who may have been children at the time of the crime, and on people suffering from mental illness. The same report by Amnesty International found, a large number of cases where it is beyond doubt that whether an accused is ultimately sentenced to death or not is an arbitrary matter. A decision that is reliant on a number of extremely variable and often subjective factors, such as competence of legal representation, interests of the state in the case and even personal views of the judges. It was found that the seemingly arbitrary nature of decisions of sentence of death were selective and discriminatory. In the landmark case, in which Justice Bhagwati who had introduced the principle of ‘rarest of the rare’ commented “death penalty has a certain class bias inasmuch as it is largely the poor and the down trodden who are the victims of this extreme penalty. We would hardly find a rich or affluent person going to the gallows”. 4 BRIEFING FOR UK MEPs – ASHLEY FOX SECTION 2 - THE CASE OF PROFESSOR DAVINDERPAL SINGH BHULLAR Name: Professor Davinderpal Singh Bhullar DOB: 25 May 1964 Age: 48 Education: Electronics Occupation: Lecturer Deported: from Germany January 1995 Imprisoned: India since 1995 – 18 Years Current Sentence: Death Row Tihar Jail New Delhi Son of: Balwant Singh Bhullar (deceased) Background Professor Bhullar was a known political dissident who out of concern in the early 1990s investigated the disappearances of forty-two of his university students. The students were suspected to have been abducted by the Punjab police and extra-judicially killed. Bhullar’s investigations led to harassments from the police and had claimed that his life was at risk in India because of his political activism. His family was persecuted as evidenced by the 'disappearance' and extra-judicial killings of his father Balwant Singh Bhullar, uncle and best engineer friend by the notorious Punjab Police in January 1991. Mr Bhullar a lecturer at Guru Nanak Engineering College (GNE) Ludhiana decided to escape India for safer places. He went to Germany to seek asylum and reached on 18/12/94. He was detained, as the authorities were not convinced of his claim apparently because of false papers on him. He was deported under escort on 17/01/95 and handed over to the Indian police at Indira Gandhi airport, New Delhi by the Lufthansa staff. The Indian authorities gave specific assurances to the German authorities that Professor Bhullar had nothing to fear if he was returned to India and that he would not be tortured. He was arrested, detained and tried under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) upon arrival and he has now been in prison for over 18 years with the last eight years in solitary confinement with the daily threat of the gallows. The Professor's mental health has deteriorated over the last two years and it has become life threatening. In his absence the German courts (Verwaltungsgericht Frankfurt, Case 8E50399\94.A(1)) ruled that he should not have been returned as his life would be in danger in India - overruling the prior decision. By deporting someone to a death-penalty prone country Germany violated the European Convention on Human Rights and remains morally obliged to do all it can to seek the Professor's immediate release. He has a wife with whom he lived for a mere 16 days before these unfortunate circumstances intervened. His wife is now in Vancouver, Canada and continues the fight for his release.
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