00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 My name's Guilpreet Singh Johal.
00:17 We're outside Abercrombie House in East Kilbride.
00:20 I'm here today because I was meeting the Foreign
00:22 Secretary David Cameron in relation to my brother, Jack
00:24 Jassing Johal, who has been arbitrarily detained in India
00:28 for the last 2,292 days.
00:31 First of all, I was glad that the Foreign Secretary
00:33 offered this meeting in Scotland,
00:35 because all our previous meetings
00:36 have been in London.
00:37 So he used his initiative to meet whilst he was in Scotland.
00:41 But it didn't go as I expected.
00:43 I expected more answers from the Foreign Secretary,
00:45 which were not given.
00:47 But what he has done is reassured us
00:49 that he'll take away everything that was said today,
00:52 and he'll come back with a position.
00:55 Whether he changes or it's the same,
00:57 we won't know until he's considered everything.
01:00 The UK government repeatedly say they're
01:02 looking for a resolution.
01:04 The resolution is simple.
01:05 It's bring my brother back home so he
01:06 can continue his married life.
01:08 But the UK government have failed
01:10 to do so for the last six years.
01:13 I think it's an element where they're not taking
01:15 the seriousness of this, where the government are asking,
01:20 why has he been detained for so long?
01:22 This is the same question we're asking,
01:24 is that Jack--
01:25 not one ounce of evidence has been produced against him.
01:28 Six years have elapsed.
01:30 He wasn't formally charged until September 2022.
01:34 And to date, all the witnesses have been cross-examined,
01:37 have produced nothing against Jack.
01:39 So clearly, the Indians don't have anything.
01:42 And this is why the UK government need to get involved.
01:44 Because this is a political case that
01:46 could be resolved with political will, which the UK government
01:49 are not putting forward.
01:50 I wouldn't say he was arrested.
01:51 I would say he was abducted.
01:53 He was out shopping with his wife and my cousin.
01:55 He was taken out of a car, bungled, hooded,
01:59 and taken into a van.
02:01 Then he was kept in commando for at least 10 days,
02:04 where he had no access to the outside world.
02:06 During that process, he was tortured,
02:08 suffered third-degree torture, mistreatment.
02:11 And then he was produced in court
02:12 and remanded again for further.
02:15 So from 4th of November 2017, British National
02:19 has been arbitrarily detained, subjected to torture.
02:22 And this government has failed him.
02:24 The last contact officially we had was on the 18th of October.
02:27 That was his wedding anniversary.
02:29 He was OK at that point.
02:30 The Indian government have failed
02:31 to allow video calls that are supposed to take place
02:34 with Jack Turf to date.
02:36 And he's supposed to be making a phone call on Friday
02:38 when it was his birthday.
02:40 We've not had that call.
02:41 So the last conversation that we had with Jack Turf
02:43 was on the 18th of October.
02:45 He's trying to hold up the best he can.
02:47 But obviously, he's been in Indian prison
02:49 for over six years.
02:50 You can just imagine how one would feel.
02:52 Martin Dorcas Hughes, Member of Parliament for West Dunbartonshire.
02:55 And we are at the East Kilbride offices of the Foreign
02:57 and Commonwealth Office.
02:59 We're here today with the family of Jagtar Singh Johal
03:02 to meet the British Foreign Secretary
03:04 to discuss Jagtar's ongoing over six year arbitrary detention.
03:09 We've been meeting with the Foreign Secretary
03:11 this morning, calling on him to agree that Jagtar
03:14 is arbitrarily detained.
03:15 Sadly, that's not happening.
03:17 It was a slightly more positive meeting
03:19 than with his predecessor, James Cleverley.
03:22 We will now be holding the new Foreign Secretary
03:24 account in the coming weeks as he follows up
03:27 some of the actions that we've been discussing with him
03:29 this morning.
03:30 There was a slight element of deja vu
03:32 as a Member of Parliament now for working
03:34 on the case for over six years.
03:36 That we were going around the houses,
03:38 as they say, in terms of what the British government's
03:41 position is.
03:42 We haven't seen very much change.
03:44 There just was seem to be a slight change in attitude
03:47 from the new Foreign Secretary.
03:48 A slight more conciliatory.
03:50 That's to be welcomed, but we certainly
03:52 will be holding him to account.
03:53 I will be doing so in Parliament and the family
03:56 and the community as well.
03:58 Jagtar was taken out of his car with his new bride
04:02 over six years ago in India.
04:05 They had just got married.
04:06 Hood was put over his head.
04:08 And as a young guy from Dumbarton, a full UK citizen,
04:11 he has now been arbitrarily detained by Indian authorities
04:15 without charge for over six years.
04:17 And I've been working alongside the family,
04:19 campaigning to get him released and for the UK government
04:23 to step up to the plate.
04:24 Alluded to terrorist charges, but in those over six years
04:27 now, there has been no evidence to corroborate
04:30 that in any shape or form.
04:32 And he has now been in court so many times
04:35 that witnesses have not been called.
04:38 Judges suspend the meeting.
04:41 And frankly, we're now getting to a point
04:42 where the Indian government now just
04:45 needs to release Jagtar, given the fact that they have
04:47 absolutely no evidence to corroborate what they're saying.
04:50 I believe we've now gone to our fifth foreign secretary,
04:54 our fourth prime minister.
04:57 And that becomes exasperating.
04:59 We now also have a British government
05:01 desperate for a trade deal with India, which we believe
05:04 has something to do with the case as well.
05:07 That's not helping the situation since we get dragged out
05:09 of the European Union.
05:11 The UK government, desperate for trade
05:13 with any other large political state.
05:15 So that has all been going on since Jagtar
05:19 was detained and arrested over six years ago.
05:23 [MUSIC PLAYING]
05:26 (upbeat music)
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