Free Dr Binayak Sen
Award winning paediatrician, public health specialist and human rights activist from India, Dr Binayak Sen was found guilty on the 24th December 2010 of sedition by authorities with a sentence of life imprisonment in a local Raipur court.
Dr Sen is well known for standing up for the rights of poor people in the tribal areas of the state Chhattisgarh, central India. According to Amnesty International he is a pioneer of health care to marginalized and indigenous communities.
The state of Chhattisgarh has seen state police and armed Maoists (or Naxalites) engaged in clashes over the last seven years. Dr Sen has reported on unlawful killings of Adivasis (Indigenous People) by the police and by Salwa Judum, a private militia widely held to be sponsored by the state authorities to fight the armed Maoists.
Amnesty International believe that the charges brought against Dr Sen are politically motivated and he is a prisoner of conscience.
A statement signed by 80 intellectuals and activists calling for his release a campaigners from all over the world are being asked to join this call.
Please sign the petition and circulate to your friends by the 30th January, Martyrs Day in India marking the assassination of the country’s most famous activist Mahatma Gandhi.Click to sign the petition.
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Wikipedia: Dr Binayak Sen
Amnesty International: Dr Binayak Sen's conviction and life sentence mock justiceSources: Wikipedia, Amnesty International and Global Call to Action Against Poverty
Tuesday 18 January 2011
Free Dr Binayak Sen
