United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
| Photo Credit: AP

The United Nations is aware of the reports about Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s two-year jail sentence and that his party plans to appeal the verdict, a spokesperson for the U.N. chief Antonio Guterres has said.

Farhan Haq, the Deputy Spokesman for the U.N. Secretary-General, was responding to a question at a press briefing here on March 23 on whether Mr. Guterres was “worried about democracy” in India.

“I can say that we’re aware of the reports regarding the case of Rahul Gandhi. We understand that his party does plan to appeal the decision. That’s as much as I can say on that at this stage,” Mr. Haq said.

Mr. Gandhi was sentenced to two years in jail on March 23 by a Surat court in a 2019 criminal defamation case over his “Modi surname” remark, in a setback to the Lok Sabha MP who faces the risk of disqualification.

The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate H. H. Varma, which held 52-year-old Mr. Gandhi guilty under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 499 and 500, also granted him bail and suspended the sentence for 30 days to allow him to appeal in a higher court.

Mr. Gandhi took to Twitter to give his initial reaction by quoting Mahatma Gandhi in Hindi.

“My religion is based on truth and non-violence. Truth is my God, non-violence, the means to get it. – Mahatma Gandhi,” he tweeted.