Detention of Jagtar Singh Johal

Matt Western Excerpts

Wednesday 30th June 2021 Westminster Hall

[Matt Western (Warwick and Leamington) (Lab)]

It is an absolute pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Hollobone.

For Jagtar Singh Johal, it is hard not to feel angry, defeated and despondent. I cannot imagine how difficult it has been for his family—and his wife in particular, who has not heard from her beloved husband since he was snatched and detained by plain-clothes officers in India just three weeks after their wedding in October 2017.

As we know, Jagtar is a British citizen, a loving family man and valued citizen of Dumbarton, but the UK Government—the Government of the country of Mr Johal’s birth—have fallen silent and deserted him. Why have the Government not demanded the release of their own British citizen? Our Foreign Secretary has not so much as met Mr Johal’s grief-stricken family, despite his predecessor accepting that Mr Johal had no chance of a fair trial and was in grave danger. However, in their attempts to strike new trade deals the Government seem to have damaged our global moral standing and neglected our humanitarian responsibilities. It is dangerous brinkmanship of the highest order, but it is also what we have come to expect. It seems the UK Government would sooner allow Mr Johal’s death than jeopardise any future trade deal. As recently as April this year, the Prime Minister met the Indian Prime Minister remotely and once again neglected to raise Mr Johal’s case during the meeting.

It is time for the Government to act to secure Mr Johal’s release. They must work towards a medical assessment of Mr Johal and of the facility in which he is imprisoned, and they must push for a private consultant to visit and gain access to where Mr Johal is confined. At the earliest opportunity, Ministers should meet Mr Johal’s family. The Government’s silence is a moral outrage and an unforgivable dereliction of their duty to protect a British citizen.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Minister for Asia (Nigel Adams)]

As ever, it is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Hollobone. I thank all right hon. and hon. Members for taking part in this very important debate, and the hon. Member for West Dunbartonshire (Martin Docherty-Hughes) for securing it. I pay tribute to him for his tenacious support for his constituent Mr Johal since his arrest in India. I am also grateful for the contributions of all right hon. and hon. Members who have been in contact with the Foreign Office, either in writing or through formats such as this, and I will try to respond to the points raised in my remarks.

Before coming to Mr Johal’s specific case, I will set out our consular policy in general terms. Clearly, consular assistance is central to our work at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year our staff endeavour to give advice and practical support to all British nationals overseas and their families here in the UK. We aim to treat every consular case with equal importance and tailor our help to the individual circumstances of each person who is in need of our support, in normal times and in times of crisis. For example, from March to July 2020, the then Foreign and Commonwealth Office ran a repatriation operation unprecedented in the post-war era. We were proud to be able to return 38,000 people on 186 charter flights from 57 countries and territories back to the UK, as well as enabling 1.3 million British nationals to return via commercial routes.

The Government do not have, and have never had, a legal duty of care to British nationals abroad, because our ability to provide consular assistance is always dependent on other states adhering to the Vienna convention on consular relations and the laws of that host country. Consequently, a right to consular assistance in English law would not help those caught up in complex consular cases. In a similar vein, the FCDO does not seek preferential treatment for British nationals. We do not and, as we have heard from several hon. Members, must not interfere in civil and criminal court proceedings. It is absolutely right that we respect the legal systems of other countries, just as we expect foreign nationals to respect our laws when they are in the United Kingdom.

Our policy in respect of how to engage on complex detention cases, such as that of Mr Johal, is clear: the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office makes no judgment on the innocence or guilt of any British national who is detained overseas. Our priority is always the welfare of the UK national concerned. We look to ensure that they are receiving food, water and medical treatment, and that they have access to legal advice. With their permission, we can raise concerns about mistreatment or torture with the prison authorities, and request an independent investigation into any such allegations.

We will always consider making representations to the local authorities if detainees are not treated in line with internationally accepted standards, including if trials are unreasonably delayed compared with local cases, and as the hon. Member for West Dunbartonshire will know, we have provided Mr Johal and his family with extensive consular support since his arrest in 2017. We will continue to do so until this case has been resolved. That resolution must include an independent investigation into Mr Johal’s allegations of torture and mistreatment, and the transparent progress of judicial proceedings against him.

[Matt Western]

Has the specific allegation that was raised by one of our colleagues, the pouring of petrol in Mr Johal’s cell, been specifically raised with the Indian authorities by anyone in the Foreign Office?

[Nigel Adams]

What I can tell the hon. Gentleman is that we have consistently raised the need for an independent and impartial investigation into those torture allegations. The Foreign Secretary himself most recently highlighted this to Indian Minister of External Affairs Jaishankar on 6 May, and we have made many representations in this case. Officials or Ministers have raised Mr Johal’s case on almost 70 occasions.

I appreciate, however, that there are calls for the British Government to do more in Mr Johal’s case. I would therefore like to reassure the House that ever since his arrest in India in 2017, our staff have worked hard to provide effective assistance to Mr Johal and his family in the UK. We take these allegations about torture and mistreatment incredibly seriously. The allegations go back to 2017 and were made again in January this year. There are causes for concern in Mr Johal’s case, and we also share right hon. and hon. Members’ deep concern about the continued delays in the legal proceedings against Mr Johal.