UNITED NATIONS, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has expressed his condolences on the death of Stan Swamy, an 84 year old jailed Indian rights activist and a Catholic priest, according to his spokesman.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe send our condolences to his family and his friends, but I think it\u2019s one of these cases where there needs to be clarity around when and how he passed away,\u201d Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said while replying a question at his regular briefing on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Earlier in Geneva, a spokesperson for UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said she is \u201cdeeply saddened and disturbed\u201d by Swamy\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are deeply saddened and disturbed by the death of 84-year-old Father Stan Swamy, a human rights defender and Jesuit priest, in Mumbai yesterday, following his arrest in October 2020 under India\u2019s Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA),\u201d her spokesperson Liz Throssell said.<\/p>\n
Bachelet also called for releasing \u201cevery person detained without a sufficient legal basis, including those detained simply for expressing critical or dissenting views\u201d in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, adding that \u201cthis would be in line with the Indian judiciary\u2019s calls to decongest the prisons\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBachelet and the UN\u2019s independent experts have repeatedly raised the cases of Father Stan and 15 other human rights defenders associated with the same events with the Government of India over the past three years and urged their release from pre-trial detention,\u201d Throssell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe High Commissioner has also raised concerns over the use of the UAPA in relation to human rights defenders, a law Father Stan was challenging before Indian courts days before he died,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch, said that it was \u201cdeeply dismayed\u201d by the death of Swamy while in custody.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a man that has for decades served those most marginalized in India. To treat him with such indignity and cruelty exposes the shortcomings in the Indian criminal justice system,\u201d HRW said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis death follows repeated indignities that were heaped upon him by Indian authorities that failed to accommodate his disabilities due to Parkinson\u2019s disease requiring him to have to plead in court for a straw to sip with,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n
It called for the repeal of UAPA and other \u201cunder severe counter-terrorism and sedition laws\u201d because of what it said were their \u201crepeated misuse\u201d and for the government to stop opposing bail for \u201cpeaceful activists in jail\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNITED NATIONS, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has expressed his condolences on the death of Stan Swamy, an 84 year old jailed Indian rights activist and a Catholic priest, according to his spokesman. \u201cWe send our condolences to his family and his friends, but I think […]<\/p>\n
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