NEW DELHI: Indian courts were under pressure on Sunday to review a life sentence given to Dr Binayak Sen, an internationally acclaimed activist and pioneering rural paediatrician convicted on Christmas Eve of helping Maoist guerrillas.

Sen, whose work among the poor of Chhattisgarh state has been praised around the world and won him the support of dozens of Nobel laureates, appeared on charges of sedition and conspiracy.

Sen, 58, was alleged to have been passing messages for leftwing guerillas, Naxalites. Activists in the US and in India joined Amnesty International to strongly criticise the verdict.

“Life in prison is an unusually harsh sentence for anyone, much less for an internationally recognised human rights defender,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty's Asia-Pacific director. “Authorities in India should immediately drop these politically motivated charges.”

Indian authorities are struggling to contain a growing insurgency by Naxalites, who have a presence in about a third of the country. Last week, Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister, said: “If we don't control Naxalism we have to say goodbye to our country's ambitions to sustain growth rate of 10-11 per cent per annum - that is the only way that we can get rid of chronic poverty.”

Supporters of Sen called the trial a farce. Prosecutors had attempted to link the doctor with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency by citing an email that also contained the line, “There is a chimpanzee in the White House”. Prosecutors said that was “code language” for “terrorists are annoyed with the US”. In fact, “ISI” referred to the Indian Social Institute, a leftwing think tank in Delhi.

Soli Sorabjee, a former attorney general of India, told CNN-IBN news channel that the judgment was shocking. “At this rate no human rights activist will be safe in the country,” he said.—Dawn/Guardian News Service