Efforts to block the extradition of terrorist Jagtar Singh failed after he was deported back to India yesterday.
The US-based human rights group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) and Danthong Breen, a human rights activist and senior adviser of Union for Civil Liberty’s Death Penalty Project, were campaigning against the extradition.
Singh: ‘Rushed’ out of the country
Singh is wanted in India for an August 1995 attack in Punjab that killed a state chief minister and 17 other people.
After hiring a Thai lawyer on Monday to appeal against the Criminal Court’s extradition order on Jan 6, Singh was taken from Bangkok Remand Prison yesterday and brought to an unnamed airport, according to a source at the Corrections Department.
Lawyer Worasit Piriyawiboon, Mr Breen, and Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, an SFJ legal adviser from New York, were shocked when they heard about the deportation.
“It is incredible that he is reportedly rushed through the airport and not allowed to appeal. We were told by Singh earlier this week that he didn’t want to go to India but he was persuaded to sign a document he did not quite fully understand,” said the Bangkok-based Mr Breen.
The appeal hearing against the Jan 6 extradition order for Singh was to be held on Feb 5.
Mr Pannun claimed that Singh was misled into signing the documents by Indian diplomats when he asked for legal representation, which subsequently resulted in his extradition.
“Although he understands English, he was poorly educated; hence the communication problem.
"It’s obvious that Indian officials have thwarted due process in Singh's extradition case,” said Mr Pannun.
Mr Breen said “ignoring the strong possibility of torture and the death penalty facing Singh will run counter to Thailand’s obligation under the Convention Against Torture”.
“Although India is not a party to the Torture Convention, Thailand, in October 2007, ratified it,” Mr Breen said.