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NEW DELHI Indias Supreme Court granted bail Friday to a prominent doctor who was appealing a sentence of life imprisonment after being convicted of sedition for helping Maoist rebels in the central tribal areas of the country.
The arrest of the doctor, Binayak Sen, drew international condemnation, and a group of 22 Nobel laureates wrote to Indian leaders asking that he be released from jail as he awaited trial.
Dr. Sen, who had worked for years to provide medical treatment and other aid to tribal people in Maoist areas, was arrested in May 2007 in Raipur in central Indian state of Chattisgarh. Government officials claimed that he had stepped over the line from helping civilians caught up in violence to helping the Maoist rebels.
The rebels are considered by the Indian government to be the countrys biggest internal security threat. Operating in hilly and remote areas of central and eastern India, the fighters have killed 843 security personnel and 1869 civilians since 2008.
Dr. Sen, 61, was convicted for sedition and arrested in December 2010. He challenged his conviction and applied for bail while awaiting his appeal, but it was denied by a state court.
The Supreme Court, which ruled that Mr. Sen should be granted bail while he appeals the ruling, also appeared to be reject much of the governments case against him, arguing that simply possessing Maoist literature was not enough to prove that Dr. Sen had broke the law. But the court did not overturn his conviction - that appeal will be heard first in lower courts.
It is a very happy day of course said his wife Ilina Sen after hearing the judgment today. There is really no evidence of sedition charges or any violence.
Dr. Sen, a celebrated specialist in rural health care, received the Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human rights in 2008 for drawing up one of the most successful community based health care models in India.
Binayak Sen has become a symbol for all the social workers. Many such activists are in jail on the name of helping Maoist rebels in many states without any evidence, said Swami Agnivesh, a human rights activist who tried to negotiate between the government and rebels to end the fighting.
The arrest of the doctor, Binayak Sen, drew international condemnation, and a group of 22 Nobel laureates wrote to Indian leaders asking that he be released from jail as he awaited trial.
Dr. Sen, who had worked for years to provide medical treatment and other aid to tribal people in Maoist areas, was arrested in May 2007 in Raipur in central Indian state of Chattisgarh. Government officials claimed that he had stepped over the line from helping civilians caught up in violence to helping the Maoist rebels.
The rebels are considered by the Indian government to be the countrys biggest internal security threat. Operating in hilly and remote areas of central and eastern India, the fighters have killed 843 security personnel and 1869 civilians since 2008.
Dr. Sen, 61, was convicted for sedition and arrested in December 2010. He challenged his conviction and applied for bail while awaiting his appeal, but it was denied by a state court.
The Supreme Court, which ruled that Mr. Sen should be granted bail while he appeals the ruling, also appeared to be reject much of the governments case against him, arguing that simply possessing Maoist literature was not enough to prove that Dr. Sen had broke the law. But the court did not overturn his conviction - that appeal will be heard first in lower courts.
It is a very happy day of course said his wife Ilina Sen after hearing the judgment today. There is really no evidence of sedition charges or any violence.
Dr. Sen, a celebrated specialist in rural health care, received the Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human rights in 2008 for drawing up one of the most successful community based health care models in India.
Binayak Sen has become a symbol for all the social workers. Many such activists are in jail on the name of helping Maoist rebels in many states without any evidence, said Swami Agnivesh, a human rights activist who tried to negotiate between the government and rebels to end the fighting.
