Briton ‘tortured’ in Indian prison takes his case to United Nations
LAWYERS acting for a British businessman who alleges he was tortured in an Indian prison claim that his case is being probed by UN human rights investigators.
Christian Michel James has been charged with bribing Indian officials to help Anglo-Italian defence firm AgustaWestland win a £500 million helicopter contract.
The 59-year-old, who denies the allegations, has been locked inside New Delhi’s maximum security Tihar prison since being extradited from Dubai in 2018. His barrister last night claimed that Mr James’s human rights have been breached and he has been subjected to such ill-treatment that it constitutes torture.
Toby Cadman said his client’s extended detention without trial and limited access to officials from the British High Commission violated the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. His legal team say they have now taken the case to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD).
It is claimed Mr James was blindfolded and handcuffed when he was extradited in a process ‘akin to rendition’. The Indian government has denied the allegation and its permanent mission to the UN in Geneva said: ‘It is not correct to say that no due process was followed in extradition of Mr James.’ Mr James’s lawyers want the Indian authorities to free him on bail and hasten his trial. Aljo Joseph, his lawyer in India, claimed: ‘He has visibly lost weight since being imprisoned, he didn’t have use of a proper toilet to start with and finds it difficult to eat the food offered to him.’
AgustaWestland’s parent company Finmeccanica Group is based in Italy where a court previously found there was ‘conclusively no evidence of corruption’ against Mr James.
A UNWGAD spokesman declined to confirm or deny if it had received a complaint from his lawyers. The Indian government did not respond to a request for comment.