Today, ten UN human rights experts have joined a growing chorus of voices calling on India to urgently release Jagtar Singh Johal, a British blogger who has been unlawfully detained in India for over eight years after being targeted for his activism. In a strongly worded statement, they warn that his prolonged detention “is a form of psychological torture” and highlight the “profound miscarriage of justice” in his case. They call on India to drop any remaining charges and release him without delay.
“Eight and a half years of arbitrary detention without a clear path to trial is not justice, it is unlawful suffering,” the experts say. “The prolonged uncertainty alone is a form of psychological torture.”
In the first case against him to reach a verdict, in March 2025, Johal was acquitted of all charges by a court in Punjab. The court found that prosecutors had “miserably failed” to present any reliable evidence despite having had over seven years to develop their case. Despite his acquittal, he faces eight essentially duplicate cases filed by India’s National Investigation Agency, all based on the same “confession” printed on a sheet of paper that he signed after police tortured him with electricity and threatened to burn him alive.
“The fact that he was acquitted, yet still faces near-identical charges, raises serious concerns about double jeopardy, the presumption of innocence, the misuse of counter-terrorism laws, and the integrity of the proceedings,” the experts say. “This is not simply delay – it points to deeper dysfunction in the administration of justice.”
“This case represents the cumulative impact of injustice”, they add. “The reliance on contested evidence, multiplication of proceedings on near-identical charges, allegations that he was targeted because of his faith, his continued arbitrary detention and the absence of accountability for torture allegations reflect a profound miscarriage of justice.”
“Time is not neutral,” they say. “The long wait for an outcome has already caused intolerable anxiety and stress, and constitutes an unacceptable harm prohibited under international human rights law.”
The UN experts have sent a new communication to India on Johal’s case and will monitor developments. The experts are the Special Rapporteurs on Torture, Freedom of Religion or Belief, on Minority Issues, on the Promotion and Protection of Fundamental Rights while Countering Terrorism, on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, on the Situation of Human rights Defenders, and four members of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
Jagtar is represented in the UK by the legal charities Reprieve and REDRESS.
Jagtar’s brother Gurpreet Singh Johal said:
“This is the strongest intervention yet from the UN. It is clear as day to legal experts that my brother should not be in prison and that keeping him there for eight years without any evidence is a terrible injustice.
The Foreign Secretary talks about respecting India’s ‘independent legal system’ when the truth is that my brother is trapped in a hell of endless hearings where no evidence is presented against him and no progress made.
Last time a group of UN experts called for Jagtar to be released, Sir Keir Starmer strongly agreed and wrote to Boris Johnson to say so. Now he is Prime Minister himself, will he do everything in his power to get my brother home? When Jagtar was fully acquitted of all charges in the first case against him, we put forward a clear strategy to the UK Government to secure his release, but it’s been more than a year and they haven’t done it – all I hear is the same old excuses for their failure to act.”
REDRESS’s Director Rupert Skilbeck said:
“The UN experts have joined a growing number of voices highlighting the flawed proceedings against Jagtar Singh Johal and how he has been targeted for his activism in India. Legal experts have found his detention lacks legal basis, and there are credible allegations he was forced to confess under torture, evidence that is inadmissible in any court. Even though the first case against him collapsed due to a lack of evidence, he has already spent eight years away from his family in the UK. The UK government should be doing more to end this injustice against a British citizen.”
Reprieve’s Deputy CEO Dan Dolan said:
“This important intervention should be a wake-up call for the UK Government, which is not doing nearly enough to help this young British man. While in Opposition Sir Keir Starmer and his shadow foreign Secretary endorsed the UN’s call for Jagtar to be released, and agreed the UK should work for this outcome, but they haven’t followed through. No prosecution that begins with a torture ‘confession’ can ever result in a fair trial, and the remaining zombie cases against Jagtar essentially duplicate the one he has been acquitted in – a clear example of double jeopardy. Sir Keir and the Foreign Secretary should do what it takes to bring Jagtar home to his family.”
