Sinn Féin spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and Defence John Brady TD has expressed his sorrow and outrage following the death in custody of the Indian human rights defender Fr Stan Swamy.

The Wicklow TD said:

“I have spoken out on numerous occasions on the plight of Fr Stan Swamy, who was imprisoned nine months ago by the Indian authorities on trumped-up charges in order to prevent him carrying out his work as a campaigner for the rights of the underprivileged in India.

“Fr Swamy was jailed on false charges. And following his death this week, the tenuous evidence offered by the state to back up their charge of Maoist terrorist conspiracy against Fr Swamy was revealed to have been planted by a hacker on a computer belonging to a co-accused, using malware.

“Despite suffering from both Covid and Parkinson’s Disease, despite the fact that he was 84 years of age, and despite the fact that he could neither eat nor bathe unaided, he was repeatedly denied bail.

“Fr Stan Swamy was allowed to die in prison by the Indian government because he was a tireless human rights defender, for the caste, and land struggles of the local tribespeople of Jharkhand for over five decades.”