In India, the U.N. is denouncing the recent death of 84-year-old Indian rights activist and Jesuit priest, Father Stan Swamy. Swamy had been charged under India’s contested “anti-terror” law. He was arrested last year over his advocacy work fighting for tribal rights, accused of having ties to a radical left-wing group which the Indian police alleged instigated violence in 2018. Swamy died in a hospital in Mumbai Monday ahead of a bail hearing. He’d been denied bail before despite having health issues, including Parkinson’s disease. This is Sitaram Yechury, a leader of India’s Communist Party.
Sitaram Yechury: “I would consider this virtually death under custody, and under custody by a government who — on charges that had not been even established or even proved to be taken up. He’s been under detention for more than eight months.”