German Prez took Bhullar case with PM the day SC upheld his death penalty

In what points towards Germany keeping a close tab on death row convict Devinderpal Singh Bhullar case, German President Joachim Gauck spoke to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the issue to plead his (Bhullar's) case on the very day Supreme Court upheld Bhullar's death penalty on April 12.

This has been revealed by German Ambassador to Canada Werner Wnendt in a reply to Canada based World Sikh Organisation (WSO), which – on the grounds that the case had a Canadian connection as well for Bhullar's wife Navneet Kaur was a Canadian citizen – took up the case of Bhullar with Wnendt seeking Germany's intervention to get the execution of Bhullar stopped.

"Germany has followed the case of Prof. Bhullar closely and has asked India on a number of occasions to relief him from the death penalty on humanitarian reasons. On April 12, 2013, the same day the Supreme Court of India has refused to relief Prof. Bhullar from the death penalty, the Federal President, Joachim Gauck, has talked to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in order to plead his case," Wnendt has said in his reply to WSO.

"The government of the Federal Republic of Germany is strongly against the death penalty and has encouraged the government of the Republic of India on numerous occasions to return to the moratorium on the death penalty," he said.
Wnendt also maintained, "Germany will continue to talk to India on the highest level about this (Bhullar) case."

The on the run Khalistan Liberation Force terrorist Bhullar, while trying to escape to Canada via Germany to be with her wife he married in 1991, was caught at Franfurt airport with a fake passport in December 1994. He applied for asylum in Germany. But, turning down his request, Germany deported him to India in January 1995. However, in October 1997, a Frankfurt court termed the deportation illegal under German law, which prohibited deportation of someone facing the death penalty in the receiving country.

After rejection of mercy petition of Bhullar by then President Pratibha Patil in 2011, the then German President reportedly, in a communication to Patil, had regretted deporting Bhullar to India. 

Courtesy: Indian Express