Indian justice: punishment by trial?

In India, human rights activist, Binayak Sen, exposes foul human rights violations committed against tribal people including, rape and murder. Instead of being praised for this discovery, the state tries covering up these incidents and uses an out-dated law against free speech to sentence him to prison. The court found Sen guilty of sedition and conspiracy based on charges that he carried letters from a jailed Maoist leader to his people in the field and opened a bank account for another rebel. The evidence presented is proof of links to people whom the police claim are Maoist, but who themselves have never even been convicted. Also, the letter that Sen was supposedly carrying held on them nothing incriminating. Charges against Sen and other outspoken Indians this year threaten the proof of India’s progressive commitment to democracy. Sen was sentenced to life in prison by a lower court for his suspected links with Maoist revolutionaries, but it is said that he was actually targeted for the state’s involvement in the large-scale clearing of villages. Some say that Sen’s sentencing was a consequence for exposing alleged rape and murder that was committed in the name of the government. Critics also say that this is nothing more than an attempt to silence peaceful support for the tribal people caught between the Maoist and the state. This shows the holes in India’s supposedly improving legal system. Proof of this is that legal experts say that the district judge had to ignore a supreme court ruling that mandated that sedition could only be allowed to curb free speech when there is a direct incitement to violence or serious public disorder. Although, from a half-glass-full perspective, Sen has many supporters that are against the verdict and protesting for his freedom.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/india/101230/india-human-rights-binayak-sen-arundhati-roy-justice?page=0,0