NEW DELHI: Amnesty International and six other global human rights organisations released a joint statement on Friday calling on the central govt to immediately release former JNU student Umar Khalid.The statement said Khalid’s detention was not an isolated case and was emblematic of a broader pattern of repression faced by those who dared to exercise their rights to freedom of expression and association.Khalid was arrested during the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. The statement alleged that while police officers and political leaders “enjoyed impunity” (for provoking communal passions), students and human rights activists, including Gulfisha Fatima, Sharjeel Imam, Khalid Saifi, Shifa-ur-Rehman and Meeran Haider, remain jailed for their peaceful opposition to CAA. “This selective prosecution erodes public trust in the justice system, entrenches impunity for state actors, and criminalises free expression,” the statement said.
Poll
Do you think fair and speedy trials are being upheld in India?
Pointing out that over the past five years, Khalid was denied bail at least four times by trial and appellate courts, most recently on Sept 2, the statement said that his petition before the Supreme Court was adjourned at least 14 times in 11 months due to requests for adjournment by the state, scheduling delays and judicial recusals, ultimately leading Khalid to withdraw his petition.In the latest order denying Khalid bail, Delhi High Court described five years of his pre-trial detention as the natural pace of proceedings, despite the trial not beginning yet and evidence not being substantively examined, the statement pointed out.Amnesty India’s chair, Aakar Patel, said, “Starved of justice, Khalid’s prolonged persecution exemplifies the derailment of justice in India as it makes a mockery of international human rights principles. The repeated bail denials combined with persistent delays, and the continued absence of trial proceedings, amount to a violation of Khalid’s right to a fair and speedy trial, guaranteed under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which India is a state party, as well as under the Constitution of India.“
