Jagtar Singh Johal case - Foreign Secretary David Cameron meets family and MP
David Cameron this morning met the family and MP of Jagtar Singh Johal.
“Jagtar’s family not only deserve answers from
@David_Cameron to justify the UK Government approach to a British national being tortured and arbitrarily detained for over 6 years in an Indian jail, they also need a new strategy to secure his speedy release and return to Scotland to be with his family.”
“Jagtar’s MP, @MartinJDocherty has been doing a fantastic job to raise his case at every opportunity, but the UK Government has failed for over 6 years to take the tough action the Foreign Minister promised in the UK Parliament within weeks of his abduction and torture.”
“The British Sikh community and the wider British public expect better from the UK Government to protect British nationals. The jury is out if David Cameron can do the decent thing by using his experience to secure Jagtar’s release where other Foreign Secretaries and PMs have failed.”
David Cameron this morning met the family and MP of Jagtar Singh Johal.
“Jagtar’s family not only deserve answers from
@David_Cameron to justify the UK Government approach to a British national being tortured and arbitrarily detained for over 6 years in an Indian jail, they also need a new strategy to secure his speedy release and return to Scotland to be with his family.”
“Jagtar’s MP, @MartinJDocherty has been doing a fantastic job to raise his case at every opportunity, but the UK Government has failed for over 6 years to take the tough action the Foreign Minister promised in the UK Parliament within weeks of his abduction and torture.”
“The British Sikh community and the wider British public expect better from the UK Government to protect British nationals. The jury is out if David Cameron can do the decent thing by using his experience to secure Jagtar’s release where other Foreign Secretaries and PMs have failed.”
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NewsTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 My name's Guilpreet Singh Johal.
00:17 We're outside Abercrombie House in East Kilbride.
00:20 I'm here today because I was meeting the Foreign
00:22 Secretary David Cameron in relation to my brother, Jack
00:24 Jassing Johal, who has been arbitrarily detained in India
00:28 for the last 2,292 days.
00:31 First of all, I was glad that the Foreign Secretary
00:33 offered this meeting in Scotland,
00:35 because all our previous meetings
00:36 have been in London.
00:37 So he used his initiative to meet whilst he was in Scotland.
00:41 But it didn't go as I expected.
00:43 I expected more answers from the Foreign Secretary,
00:45 which were not given.
00:47 But what he has done is reassured us
00:49 that he'll take away everything that was said today,
00:52 and he'll come back with a position.
00:55 Whether he changes or it's the same,
00:57 we won't know until he's considered everything.
01:00 The UK government repeatedly say they're
01:02 looking for a resolution.
01:04 The resolution is simple.
01:05 It's bring my brother back home so he
01:06 can continue his married life.
01:08 But the UK government have failed
01:10 to do so for the last six years.
01:13 I think it's an element where they're not taking
01:15 the seriousness of this, where the government are asking,
01:20 why has he been detained for so long?
01:22 This is the same question we're asking,
01:24 is that Jack--
01:25 not one ounce of evidence has been produced against him.
01:28 Six years have elapsed.
01:30 He wasn't formally charged until September 2022.
01:34 And to date, all the witnesses have been cross-examined,
01:37 have produced nothing against Jack.
01:39 So clearly, the Indians don't have anything.
01:42 And this is why the UK government need to get involved.
01:44 Because this is a political case that
01:46 could be resolved with political will, which the UK government
01:49 are not putting forward.
01:50 I wouldn't say he was arrested.
01:51 I would say he was abducted.
01:53 He was out shopping with his wife and my cousin.
01:55 He was taken out of a car, bungled, hooded,
01:59 and taken into a van.
02:01 Then he was kept in commando for at least 10 days,
02:04 where he had no access to the outside world.
02:06 During that process, he was tortured,
02:08 suffered third-degree torture, mistreatment.
02:11 And then he was produced in court
02:12 and remanded again for further.
02:15 So from 4th of November 2017, British National
02:19 has been arbitrarily detained, subjected to torture.
02:22 And this government has failed him.
02:24 The last contact officially we had was on the 18th of October.
02:27 That was his wedding anniversary.
02:29 He was OK at that point.
02:30 The Indian government have failed
02:31 to allow video calls that are supposed to take place
02:34 with Jack Turf to date.
02:36 And he's supposed to be making a phone call on Friday
02:38 when it was his birthday.
02:40 We've not had that call.
02:41 So the last conversation that we had with Jack Turf
02:43 was on the 18th of October.
02:45 He's trying to hold up the best he can.
02:47 But obviously, he's been in Indian prison
02:49 for over six years.
02:50 You can just imagine how one would feel.
02:52 Martin Dorcas Hughes, Member of Parliament for West Dunbartonshire.
02:55 And we are at the East Kilbride offices of the Foreign
02:57 and Commonwealth Office.
02:59 We're here today with the family of Jagtar Singh Johal
03:02 to meet the British Foreign Secretary
03:04 to discuss Jagtar's ongoing over six year arbitrary detention.
03:09 We've been meeting with the Foreign Secretary
03:11 this morning, calling on him to agree that Jagtar
03:14 is arbitrarily detained.
03:15 Sadly, that's not happening.
03:17 It was a slightly more positive meeting
03:19 than with his predecessor, James Cleverley.
03:22 We will now be holding the new Foreign Secretary
03:24 account in the coming weeks as he follows up
03:27 some of the actions that we've been discussing with him
03:29 this morning.
03:30 There was a slight element of deja vu
03:32 as a Member of Parliament now for working
03:34 on the case for over six years.
03:36 That we were going around the houses,
03:38 as they say, in terms of what the British government's
03:41 position is.
03:42 We haven't seen very much change.
03:44 There just was seem to be a slight change in attitude
03:47 from the new Foreign Secretary.
03:48 A slight more conciliatory.
03:50 That's to be welcomed, but we certainly
03:52 will be holding him to account.
03:53 I will be doing so in Parliament and the family
03:56 and the community as well.
03:58 Jagtar was taken out of his car with his new bride
04:02 over six years ago in India.
04:05 They had just got married.
04:06 Hood was put over his head.
04:08 And as a young guy from Dumbarton, a full UK citizen,
04:11 he has now been arbitrarily detained by Indian authorities
04:15 without charge for over six years.
04:17 And I've been working alongside the family,
04:19 campaigning to get him released and for the UK government
04:23 to step up to the plate.
04:24 Alluded to terrorist charges, but in those over six years
04:27 now, there has been no evidence to corroborate
04:30 that in any shape or form.
04:32 And he has now been in court so many times
04:35 that witnesses have not been called.
04:38 Judges suspend the meeting.
04:41 And frankly, we're now getting to a point
04:42 where the Indian government now just
04:45 needs to release Jagtar, given the fact that they have
04:47 absolutely no evidence to corroborate what they're saying.
04:50 I believe we've now gone to our fifth foreign secretary,
04:54 our fourth prime minister.
04:57 And that becomes exasperating.
04:59 We now also have a British government
05:01 desperate for a trade deal with India, which we believe
05:04 has something to do with the case as well.
05:07 That's not helping the situation since we get dragged out
05:09 of the European Union.
05:11 The UK government, desperate for trade
05:13 with any other large political state.
05:15 So that has all been going on since Jagtar
05:19 was detained and arrested over six years ago.
05:23 [MUSIC PLAYING]
05:26 (upbeat music)