#arbitrary-detention

#arbitrary-detention

The sisters of the British-Egyptian human rights campaigner Alaa Abd el-Fattah have intervened for the first time since his release from prison in Egypt to call on Keir Starmer to push Narendra Modi to free a British Sikh activist when he meets the Indian prime minister next week. Jagtar Singh Johal, from Dumbarton, has been held in an Indian jail for nearly eight years without facing full trial in what his supporters say is an arbitrary and egregious denial of justice by a British ally.

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was finally freed in 2022 following years of diplomatic negotiations and the British payment of a 400m debt to Iran, said Mr Lammy promised to help those arbitrarily detained overseas when he was foreign secretary. Now he is justice secretary, I hope he will take that commitment to ending arbitrary detention at home, she told The Independent ahead of a panel event on the jail terms at the Labour conference.