Victims of arbitrary detention have called on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to raise the case of British Sikh activist Jagtar Singh Johal during his meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi next week. Johal, from Dumbarton, has been held in an Indian prison for nearly eight years without a full trial, in what supporters describe as an unjust denial of justice by a British ally.
In a letter coordinated by the campaign group Redress, signatories including Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Matthew Hedges urge Starmer to tell Modi that the continued mistreatment of Johal will have 'long-lasting consequences' for UK-India relations. Johal was arrested in 2017 while in India to get married and faces terrorism charges linked to the banned Khalistan Liberation Force. He was acquitted in one of nine cases against him in March 2025, with the court finding prosecutors had 'miserably failed' to prove their case.
The letter highlights that Johal has not been convicted of any crime and that the remaining eight cases violate the 'double jeopardy' principle. It notes that he faces a possible death sentence based on a confession allegedly extracted under torture. His prison conditions have worsened since his acquittal, with almost total solitary confinement and regular cell searches.
Starmer previously raised Johal's case with Modi during a visit to London last summer, but the letter argues that 'raising the case is not enough,' as previous government interventions have failed to secure progress. The signatories, including the sisters of British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, stress that only repeated high-level intervention can make a difference in such cases.
