Overview

• Keir Starmer travels to India on Tuesday to meet Narendra Modi and promote a £4.8bn-a-year trade deal, with Johal’s family and Reprieve urging him to press for the detainee’s release.
• A UK court began hearing the family’s tort claim alleging UK intelligence sharing helped lead to Johal’s 2017 arrest, citing an oversight report that MI5 passed information via MI6.
• Johal, a 38-year-old Briton from Dumbarton, has been held in India since 2017, and a UN panel ruled in 2022 that his detention was arbitrary.
• He was acquitted earlier this year in a terrorism-related case, yet campaigners say eight federal cases that mirror the same allegations and disputed confession keep him in prison.
• The Foreign Office says it raises concerns with India at every opportunity and that the Foreign Secretary will meet Johal’s brother to discuss the case.