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London, England - A world day of protest is being
planned for January 17, 2006. Sikhs in major cities
such as London, Paris, Toronto and New York are
aiming to show their opposition to the death penalty
and call for the release of all Sikh political
prisoners held in jails in India.
Candles will be lit in prominent places of cities
throughout the world, and in India itself. Sikhs
in more than 100 cities are expected to take part
in the protest and will be joined by prominent
politicians, human rights activists and trade
union activists.
In the UK, candle light protests will take place
simultaneously around twenty towns and cities
and are organized by the Sikh Federation (UK),
Khalsa Human Rights, Sikh Secretariat, Young Sikhs
(UK), Sikh student groups, Gurdwaras and the Sadh
Sangat. Amnesty International and other members
of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty
are supporting the protests.
Protest in London will be held outside the Houses
of Parliament in Westminster between 5-7pm. MPs,
Lords and members of the public will join Sikhs
to light candles celebrating life, freedom and
opposition to the death penalty.
The protest date, January 17, was set to coincide
with the 11th anniversary of one of the most controversial
and highest profile death penalty cases in recent
Indian history. Eleven years earlier, on January
17, 1995, Professor Davinderpal Singh, a Sikh
political activist, was illegally deported from
Germany. Davinderpal Singh was handed over to
the Indian authorities on the basis that he had
nothing to fear on his return to India. Singh
was arrested and put in prison the moment he landed
in Delhi. He was tortured to obtain a false confession,
charged and sentenced to death by hanging for
a crime he did not commit.
When Germany deported Davinderpal Singh to a country
that allows the death-penalty, it violated the
European Convention on Human Rights, the Sikh
Federation stated. After his deportation, the
court of appeals in Frankfurt, on appeal, said
that he should not have been deported given the
high probability of facing torture, harassment
and death in India; and were he to re-enter Germany,
he would be given asylum.
"The verdict of the court of appeals in Germany
came too late for Davinderpal Singh. However,
it has left Germany and the EU with a moral obligation
to ensure the threat of the death penalty by India
is removed and Davinderpal Singh and other political
prisoners that are unnecessarily being held, either
without trial or under false charges and without
evidence, are released immediately," the
statement continued.
"Our aim is to organize candle light vigils
in at least 20 towns/cities. We are already aware
of vigils being organized in prominent locations
in Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Coventry, Derby,
Gravesend, Huddersfield, Leeds, Leicester, Manchester,
Nottingham, Slough, Southampton, Walsall and Wolverhampton.
We are also hopeful that Sikhs in the UK will
organize candle light vigils in other locations."
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