Outcry as doctor gets life sentence

Hundreds of human rights activists have demonstrated across India protesting against the harsh life sentence handed down to a highly regarded 60-year-old paediatrician and human rights activist on charges of aiding Maoist rebels.

Binayak Sen, an outspoken government critic who for decades worked among tribal communities in India's central Chhattisgarh province to rally depressed, impoverished and neglected locals to fight for their rights was convicted of waging war against the state by a local court in the state capital of Raipur on Christmas Eve.

Sen, who was running health clinics in Chhattisgarh and training tribal communities whose plight Maoist rebels claim to champion, faces the prospect of 14 years in jail.

His case, severely criticised by Amnesty International, indigenous and global human rights groups and Nobel laureates lasted 3 years in the course of which the doctor spent 22 months in prison before being granted bail by the Supreme Court last year.

While in jail he was awarded the Jonathan Mann Award for health and human rights in 2008 in recognition of his services to the poor by the United States-based Global Health Council.

At the time 22 Nobel laureates had written to the Indian Government criticising his imprisonment and requesting he be freed to collect the council's award in person. Their appeal was ignored.

"We wish to express grave concern that Dr Sen appears to be incarcerated solely for peacefully exercising his fundamental human rights," the letter declared, adding the internal security laws used to charge him did not "comport with international human rights standards".

Amnesty International said Sen's life sentence violated international fair trial standards and was likely to inflame tensions in the conflict-affected area.

"Dr Sen, who is considered a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, was convicted under laws that are impermissibly vague and fall well short of international standards for criminal prosecution," Amnesty's Asia-Pacific head Sam Zarifi said.

Sen was also supported by India's federal Government and the Opposition.

Sen wept when the verdict was announced by the provincial sessions court last Friday after which his lawyer said that he would appeal as the basis for the conviction was "flimsy".

"There is no suggestion of warlike activity anywhere in the judgment copy," he said.

Sen's wife Ilina, who was in court with their two daughters, said the verdict was "totally irrational".

The Maoists' "Red Corridor" controlled by about 20,000 armed cadres is spread across a third of India.

In their areas of dominance the Maoists levy taxes, dispense rough and ready justice and threaten the entry of multinational mining and industrial conglomerates.

Their cadres comprise disaffected tribal people preyed upon by venal, ineffective and indifferent administrations. The federal Home Ministry's figures show Maoist violence has claimed more than 10,500 lives since 2005.

This year 1000 people, including 577 civilians and more than 200 security forces personnel, have died in Maoist-related violence in what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has labelled India's most serious internal security problem.