The United Nations said Tuesday it was deeply disturbed by the death in pre-trial detention of Father Stan Swamy, an 84-year-old Indian rights activist and Jesuit priest.
Swamy, who was detained for nine months under Indian anti-terror laws, died on Monday ahead of a bail hearing.
The priest, who campaigned for marginalised tribal communities, was arrested last year for allegedly inciting violence between different Indian castes in 2018.
“We are deeply saddened and disturbed by the death of 84-year-old Father Stan Swamy,” Liz Throssell, a spokeswoman for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters in Geneva.
Swamy was denied bail despite suffering from Parkinson’s disease and other ailments. He was admitted to hospital in May with coronavirus and suffered a cardiac arrest over the weekend.
The priest had been detained under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
“High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet and the UN’s 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,” said Throssell.
“The 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.”
Throssell said that given the severe impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, countries — India included — should release everyone detained without a sufficient legal basis.
“We stress, once again, the high commissioner’s call on the government of India to ensure that no one is detained for exercising their fundamental rights to freedom of expression, of peaceful assembly and of association,” the spokeswoman said.
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