The UN's Human Rights High Commissioner's office (UNHRC) office has admonished India for illegally detaining a French national and trying to extradite to Chile.
In a six-page order uploaded on Saturday, the UN Human Rights body observed that India totally violated the norms by arresting a French national Marie Emmanuelle Verhoeven who visited on valid visa in February 2015 and illegally detained in Tihar prison for 17 months, even after the Delhi High Court ordered to release her.
Verhoeven was a UN staffer in Chile during 1985 to 1995 and was a suspect in a political killing happened during the end days of military dictatorship of Pinochet regime. She was visiting India’s Buddhist places from 2011 on travel visa from her home country France. In February 2015, the 55 year old French national was arrested from India-Nepal border and placed in Tihar jail as per a Red Corner Notice issued by Chile.
Earlier, she was not allowed to communicate with the French Embassy in India and later senior lawyer Ramni Taneja took up her case and Delhi High Court ordered her release in September 2015. But within hours Ministry of External Affairs officials visited jail and she was re-arrested showing RCN issued by Chile.
The case went up to Supreme Court and then External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and PMO intervened and she was discharged from all cases and allowed to go back to home country France in July 2017. The six page order of UNHR body narrates the ordeal of Verhoeven in Indian prison.