Let activist receive US award: Nobel laureates to Govt

Nobel prize winning scientists and economists have appealed to the Central Government for the release of jailed paediatrician and human rights activist Dr Binayak Sen. In their appeal addressed to the President of India Pratibha Patil, the Nobel laureates have asked that Sen be allowed to go and receive the 2008 Jonathan Mann Award for Health and Human Rights in Washington later this month. “Dr Sen, is the first south Asian to be selected for the prestigious award,” a statement released by the PUCL stated.

Sen, national vice-president of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), has been kept under detention since his arrest on May 14, 2007. He was arrested under the Chhattisgarh State Public Security Act last year on charges of ‘supporting’ unlawful activities of an armed underground movement. Maintaining that all the charges were false, the PUCL in its statement alleged that Dr Sen was being victimised for his human rights work and exposure of violations carried out by police and the state-sponsored civil militia movement called Salwa Judum in Chhattisgarh. Signatories to the letter include 22 Nobel laureates in various disciplines.