We encourage fair and transparent legal process: US on Kejriwal’s arrest

The US is closely following reports of the arrest of Indian opposition figure
Arvind Kejriwal
and encourages a fair legal process, a State Department spokesperson said on Monday after Germany’s reaction to the case sparked a protest from India.

Kejriwal, a national opposition figure and chief minister of Delhi’s capital territory, was arrested by India’s financial crime-fighting agency on Thursday on corruption charges that his political party rejects, a month before national elections.

“We encourage a fair, transparent, and timely legal process for Chief Minister Kejriwal,” the U.S. spokesperson said in response to an emailed query about the case, in which India summoned a German envoy on Saturday to protest against his government’s remarks about the arrest.

Asked about the arrest at a government press conference on Friday, Sebastian Fischer, spokesperson for Germany’s foreign office said that like anyone else facing accusations, Kejriwal was entitled to a fair and impartial trial.

“We assume and expect that the standards relating to independence of judiciary and basic democratic principles will also be applied in this case,” he said.

New Delhi summoned the German embassy’s deputy chief of mission, Georg Enzweiler, “and conveyed India’s strong protest,” at the remarks, India’s foreign ministry said on Saturday.

“We see such remarks as interfering in our judicial process and undermining the independence of our judiciary,” it said in a statement. “Biased assumptions made on this account are most unwarranted.”