For months, Father Stan Swamy, an 84-year-old Jesuit priest, claimed his innocence in courts and pleaded for medical care, but Indian authorities denied him bail. He died at a hospital in July 2021 after spending more than eight months in jail on terrorism charges.
Now, an examination of an electronic copy of his computer by Arsenal Consulting, a Massachusetts-based digital forensics firm, concludes that a hacker infiltrated his device and planted evidence, according to a new report by the company. The analysis is more proof that Swamy and his co-defendants were framed in a case that exemplifies the Indian government’s crack-down against civil society and prominent critics, the defense team says.
More than a dozen activists, academics and lawyers have been imprisoned under an anti-terrorism law — some for more than four years — accused of having ties to a banned Maoist armed group that aims to overthrow the government. They deny the charges. The stringent terrorism law has drawn criticism in part because the accused can rarely secure bail and cases brought under the law have a poor conviction rate.
They were accused of plotting to overthrow the Modi government. The evidence was planted, a new report says.
In 2021, The Washington Post reported that devices of at least two defendants in the case had been compromised by hackers who deposited dozens of incriminating documents in the devices. This malware campaign targeted individuals beyond those facing charges in the case.
Separately, the Pegasus Project investigation by The Post and 16 other news organizations revealed that some of the defendants were included on a list of surveillance targets for spyware supplied by the Israeli firm NSO Group to governments or their agencies. The Indian government has neither confirmed nor denied that it is an NSO client. In June, Wired reported links between the hacking campaign and Indian police, who did not respond to the report.

A court in China has jailed a housing rights activist for the second time on the charge of incitement against the state, a common accusation routinely used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to suppress dissent.
The Intermediate People’s Court in Shanghai found Chen Jianfang, 51, guilty of “incitement to subvert state power,” during a closed-door trial wherein she was refused the right to a defence attorney, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on December 1.
The exact jail time is unknown but she has been fined 30,000 yuan (US$4,200) as a monetary penalty.
Her supporters termed the allegations baseless and refused to accept the verdict.
Rights lawyer Wang Yu said that Chen “appeared in court alone, and no one was present, neither family members nor defence attorneys, when the verdict was pronounced.”
Wang said that the exact date of the verdict was not known but officials have recently revealed the sentence.
“Chen Jianfang’s husband was perhaps a little more co-operative, so the authorities let him know the verdict,” Wang said. “Even a one-day sentence would have been too long be-cause she is totally innocent.”

A Christian group in the southern Indian state of Karnataka has sought police protection for the minority community during the Christmas season.
The Akhila Bharatha Christha Mahasabha (All India Christian Forum), a Protestant body, in a written communication to the Director General and Inspector General of Police requested to ensure a peaceful Christmas as Christians are reeling under attacks “since the enactment of the anti-conversion law.”
Prajwal Swamy S, founder member of the organization, said they wanted the police to provide security cover to churches across the southern state during the festive season.
“Christians are apprehensive of participating in carol singing and visiting the houses of church members during the night for good wishes as they may face attacks,” Swamy told The Hindu newspaper.
“Christians in Karnataka are fearful about being target-ed.”
He cited two recent incidents of Hindu nationalists disrupting Christian prayer meetings in Channapatna and Maddur, both located around 60 kilometers from the state capital Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), by alleging religious conversion activities.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has inaugurated renovated and extended building of St. Vincent’s Pro-Cathedral Church in Bhubaneswar, the capital of the eastern Indian state of Odisha. “I am delighted to be here for the completion of the renovation of the church. Thank you very much,” said the chief minister in his inaugural address to the gathering on December 9, at the pro-cathedral. Archbishop John Barwa of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar in his welcoming speech said Christians in the state have experienced the chief minister’s care and attention. “We thank you sir wholeheartedly for your coming over here this evening to grace the occasion,” said the Divine Word prelate.
Dilip Tirkey, president of the Hockey Federation India and a native of Odisha present for the inauguration, too expressed the gratitude of Christians of the state to the chief minister.

Fisherfolk’s protest against an under construction international seaport in Kerala has been called off after nearly five months, paving the way for re-starting the stalled construction work.
Announcing the end of the stir on December 6, Father Eu-gene Pereira, the convener of the protest, said they decided to end agitation not because they were satisfied with the steps taken by the government but because it had reached a certain poin.
The priest of the Trivandrum Latin archdiocese also maintained that it was a temporary truce indicating that if the government failed to fulfil the promises they might consider restarting the protest.
The construction work of the 75 billion rupee Adani Vizhinjam International Seaport came to a halt after the fisherpeople, mostly Catholics, launched an indefinite protest on July 20 under the leadership of bishops and priests of archdiocese with a seven point charter of demands. The protesters said after the port construction started in 2015 close to 500 fishermen lost they houses to seawater and we-re forced to live in unhygienic warehouses and other places.

A group of some ten women stood away from everyone else in a corner of the church as Sunday Mass progressed in San Lorenzo parish, in the hilly tourist district of Loakan in the Philippines.
The women belonged to the Igorot tribe in Mountain Province, a landlocked province in the Cordillera Administrative Region. They looked reluctant to speak with other members of the congregation even after the Mass was over as they were not comfortable conversing in English or in the popular Tagalog language.
They said they would live to participate in things a bit more but have been left with the sense that they do not really fit in.
“We tried to join several parish activities before but we were never voted or even nominated as members of the parish pastoral council. I think those seats were reserved for those who are rich and be of more use to the church in a material sense,” said Manang Trining, who spoke for the group.
The isolation that the Inibaloy people feel in parishes is reflective of their social exclusion within the Church itself and wider society, their leaders say.

The bounden duty of the media to become prophetic communicators was stressed at a national convention of journalists in Chennai, southern India.
“As the members of the Fourth Estate and proud citizens of India, we cannot afford to turn a blind eye to the unsavoury developments in the social, economic, political, technological and religious spheres,” asserted the 27th convention of Christian Journalists, hosted by the Indian Catholic Press Association (ICPA).
The convention was held during the association’s December 8-11 annual general body meeting.

The Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco of Guwahati province has launched the centenary celebration of their arrival in northeastern India with a shrine dedicated to St. Mary Domnica Mazzarello, their co-founder at St. Mary’s Convent in Guwahati, Assam.
Leading the December 8 function, Archbishop John Moolachira of Guwahati said, “I join with you to thank God for his blessings upon you and I congratulate you for your presence and for the 100 years of selfless service to North East India in so many ways.”
Six pioneers from Italy led by Sister Innocenza Vallino, arrived in Guwahati on December 8, 1923, and began their educational mission in a dilapidated cottage in the premises of Don Bosco, Pan Bazar, Guwahati.

An Indian court has granted anticipatory bail to Bishop Thomas Dabre of Pune, averting his likely arrest as a co-accused in a case of alleged clergy sexual abuse.
Bishop Dabre was named by Pune city police in the western Indian state of Maharashtra in a case under pro-visions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. The case involves Father Vincent Pereira of Pune diocese, who was accused of abusing a 15-year-old schoolboy.