A British man imprisoned in India for more than eight years has said he is “stuck in a broken country with a broken judicial system”, as Yvette Cooper faces calls from his family and his MP to bring him home during her visit there this week.
Jagtar Singh Johal, 39, from Dumbarton, near Glasgow, was arrested by Indian authorities in 2017, just weeks after his wedding in the country, and has been detained ever since.
He was acquitted last year in a case in which he was accused of financially supporting a terror group, but he still faces federal charges by the Indian authorities related to the same allegations.
A group of UN experts have said Mr Johal’s imprisonment is an example of arbitrary detention, where a person is jailed without a legal basis, and said he has endured “a form of psychological torture”.
Foreign Secretary Ms Cooper is in India this week for talks on global security, following a visit to China.
Mr Johal was told about the senior Cabinet minister’s forthcoming visit to Delhi by consular staff during a recent visit. He was said to have replied with a message for the Foreign Secretary, telling them: “I’m stuck in a broken country with a broken judicial system.”
Ms Cooper is due to meet her Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, on Thursday.
Ahead of that meeting, Mr Johal’s Labour MP, Douglas McAllister, is among those who said it will not be enough for Ms Cooper to simply raise his case with the Indian government.
The West Dunbartonshire MP said: “There can be no higher priority on this trip than securing the freedom of a young British man who has been unjustly imprisoned for almost nine years. I have made this case to the Foreign Secretary personally, stressing the need for urgent action. It is not enough to raise the case or call for faster progress: following his acquittal in Punjab, all remaining charges against Jagtar Singh Johal should be dropped, so that he can return home to Dumbarton.”
Gurpreet Singh Johal, Mr Johal’s older brother, meanwhile, said he wanted to see the Foreign Secretary adopt a plan aimed at securing his release, which the family had discussed with Ms Cooper in a meeting last year.
He said: “Each time a Foreign Minister travels to India for meetings, a part of me believes that Jagtar will be on the plane home with them. We look for tiny signs of progress and reasons to hope and, each time, the disappointment is crushing. When I met Yvette Cooper last year, we presented a clear plan to get Jagtar home – this visit is her big chance to put it into action. She has all the tools to succeed where seven other foreign secretaries have failed. It would be devastating to hear the same weak excuses all over again.”
Mr Johal’s family has been supported in its campaign to secure his release by the campaign group, Reprieve, which has consistently insisted that the Indian authorities have no case against him.
Dan Dolan, deputy chief executive of Reprieve, said: “An Indian court last year acquitted Jagtar on all charges, for lack of evidence, but he remains detained due to eight zombie cases based on the same allegation and the same torture confession. This kind of double jeopardy is prohibited in India’s constitution and international law. As UN legal experts recently communicated to the Indian authorities, the only just resolution is for the charges to be dropped and Jagtar released immediately. It’s past time for the Foreign Secretary to negotiate with her Indian counterparts and get this done.”
Mr Johal’s case is not the only example of a British citizen imprisoned abroad which the Foreign Secretary has faced pressure to raise during her trip to Asia. While in China, Ms Cooper vowed to continue raising the case of imprisoned British citizen Jimmy Lai with the Chinese government amid opposition calls for her to secure his release by Beijing.
The Foreign Secretary said a “really important” working relationship had been established between the UK and China after years of frosty relations as she capped a two-day visit to the country. But she has faced pressure to take a harder line with Beijing over concerns about national security and human rights issues, including the detention of pro-democracy campaigner Mr Lai.
A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We continue to raise concerns about Mr Johal’s prolonged detention at every appropriate opportunity with the government of India, and the Foreign Secretary will do so again tomorrow. We have made clear that faster progress is needed to reach a resolution, including a full investigation into Mr Johal’s allegations of torture.”
