Martin Docherty-Hughes, MP for West Dunbartonshire, has urged the Foreign Secretary to step-up efforts to bring home detained Dumbarton man Jagtar Singh Johal.
SNP MP Martin Docherty-Hughes met today with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss to press for action on behalf of his constituent’s family, reiterating calls for the UK government to do more to bring an end to the arbitrary detention in India of Jagtar Singh Johal.
35 year old Jagtar – known as Jaggi – has been incarcerated without trial in India for more than four and a half years. He was arrested after his wedding in November 2017, accused of helping to fund a Sikh-on-Hindu assassination plot – something he and his family strongly deny.
Last month, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention ruled that there was no legal basis for Jagtar’s continued detention in India, citing multiple violations of his human rights.
The latest meeting with the Foreign Secretary was secured following a question raised in parliament by Martin Docherty-Hughes, after the return to the UK of British-Iranian national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe after 6 years in detention.
Commenting, Martin Docherty-Hughes MP said:
“This afternoon I and Jagtar’s brother had a productive meeting with the Foreign Secretary, taking time to explain the situation as we have seen it over the last four and a half years and the Foreign Secretary listened intently to what we had to say.
“The Republic of India has a respected and independent legal system which has been the basis of a strong democracy, and we must hope that they take the findings of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention very seriously: we hope that Jagtar can be able to meet his wife and family again for the first time in so long at home in Dumbarton.”
