Or download the paper petition and mail to: His Excellency Sanjay Kumar Verma , High Commissioner of India to Canada, High Commission of Canada 10 Springfield Road, Ottawa, ON K1M 1C9
Fr Stan Swamy, an Indian Jesuit priest and activist who spent five decades fighting for Indigenous rights in the state of Jharkhand, died of Covid-19 in July 2021 after spending seven months in an Indian prison.
He was imprisoned under the archaic Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for crimes against the government of India and his supposed involvement in violence surrounding the 2018 Bhima Koregaon protests.
In December 2022, Massachusetts-based digital forensics firm Arsenal Consulting reported the results of its investigation into the evidence which had led to Fr Swamy’s arrest and imprisonment. The report concluded that Fr Swamy was systematically targeted in an extensive malware campaign over a four-year period during which time which falsified evidence was planted on the priest’s computer.
Fr Stan’s willingness to stand with the poor and excluded eventually cost him his life. Today, we are asking you to stand in solidarity with Fr Stan by signing this petition initiated by Jesuit Missions UK, which calls on the Indian government to clear the name of this innocent man, based on the new evidence. We ask you to stand in solidarity with Fr Stan and activists in Jharkhand where the petition has already received 10,000 signatures.