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| Birthday | 26 May 1965 |
| Biography | Davinderpal Singh Bhullar is on death row in India. His execution by hanging is imminent. Bhullar was born in Jalandhar, India, on May 26, 1965. 1991 - In the city of Chandigarh, Bhullar is accused of involvement in an attack on Indian police, who visit his house, fail to find him there and so abduct his father and maternal uncle, both of whom are then tortured to death in police custody. ... September 1993 - Bhullar is accused of bombing the All-India Youth Congress office in New Delhi. December 1994 - Pleading his innocence while fearing torture and an unfair trial if he remained in India, Bhullar seeks political asylum in Germany. January 18, 1995 - After Germany rejects Bhullar’s asylum plea, he is deported to India and handed over to Indian police. January 1995 - An Indian police interrogation of Bhullar, whom they allegedly tortured, produces a coerced confession of his involvement in the September 1993 bombing. April 1995 - From jail, Bhullar appeals to the court that he was “made to sign on blank pieces of paper, which were later filled by a statement written and typed in by the police, under threat that if he did not sign he would be terminated by the Punjab Police in a false encounter.” October 6, 1997 - A court in Frankfurt, Germany rules that Bhullar’s deportation was illegal under German law, which forbids deportation of someone facing torture or the death penalty in the receiving country. The court states: “Overruling the decision of 21st December 1994 (case No.: E 193094-436), [Germany] shall be obligated to determine that there are legal obstacles as defined in section 53 of the Aliens Act for a deportation of [Bhullar] to India.... A deportation obstacle is given, if it can be established positively that the alien is threatened with an individual concrete risk of torture in the country, to which he is to be deported.... There is another deportation obstacle as defined by section 53, paragraph 2, sentence 1 of the Aliens Act as the complainant is prosecuted for offences in India which are threatened with the death penalty.” 2000 - After years of imprisonment, Bhullar’s case is finally sent to trial. No evidence is offered of Bhullar’s involvement and not a single one of the 133 witnesses produced by the prosecution identified him as guilty of anything. August 2001 - Bhullar is convicted and sentenced to death based solely on his coerced confession. August 2002 - The presiding judge on a three-judge panel of the Indian Supreme Court acquits Bhullar, yet the other two uphold his conviction. Defending Bhullar’s death sentence, the two judges state that proof “beyond reasonable doubt” should be a “guideline, not a fetish.” 2003 - An Amnesty International release states: “There are serious concerns that Davinder Pal Singh Bhuller may not have been given a fair trial.... He was found guilty solely on the strength of an unsubstantiated confession he made in police custody, allegedly under intense police pressure, which he later retracted.” December 2010 - Cables published by Wikileaks reveal that the U.S. embassy in Delhi has recently concluded that India “condones torture” and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has advised U.S. officials that Indian authorities commonly employ electrocution, beatings and sexual humiliation to torture detainees. Noting that all branches of India’s security forces engage in such misconduct, one ICRC cable states: “The abuse always takes place in the presence of officers and ... detainees were rarely militants (they are routinely killed).” |
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| Gender | Male |
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