Indian activist’s life sentence widely condemned

(December 28, 2010) Church groups have joined nationwide protests against the life sentence given to a human right activist who worked among tribal people in central India. Students, academics and activists gathered in New Delhi on Monday to protest the sentence against Binayak Sen, a pediatrician and a human rights activist. On Dec. 24, a trial court in Chhattisgarh found Sen “guilty of criminal conspiracy to commit sedition” and sentenced him to life imprisonment. He is accused of aiding Maoists, who are waging war against the government. Sen, a Bengali, studied medicine at the renowned Protestant-run Christian Medical College at Vellore in Tamil Nadu and then worked for more than 30 years to bring healthcare to Chhattisgarh’s tribal people. In 2008, he won the Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights. He was the vice president of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties and campaigned against unlawful killings of tribal people and violation of human rights in tribal areas. The National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) condemned the verdict as “politically motivated and vindictive” and aimed at weakening people’s movements. Father Babu Joseph, spokesperson of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, described Sen’s sentence as unfortunate. Redemptorist Father Thomas Kocherry, who pioneered fishermen’s movements in India, condemned the “unjust” sentence and urged fellow activists to keep protesting until Sen gets justice.