Abolish Death Penalty India: Muzaffar Ahmad Rather

Sunday, December 23, 2018

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq slams death sentence to Kashmiri youth (Kashmir)

By PTI |Srinagar |Updated: January 23, 2017 8:03:35 pm

"The verdict of a trial court of West Bengal, awarding death sentence to Muzaffar Ahmad Rather of Jogipora, Kulgam (in south Kashmir) after being in jail for 14 continuous years is against the internationally accepted norms of justice and fair play," he said in a statement at Srinagar.

The West Bengal court’s verdict awarding death sentence to a Kashmiri youth after being in jail for 14 years is “against the internationally accepted norms of justice”, Moderate Hurriyat Conference chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said on Monday. “The verdict of a trial court of West Bengal, awarding death sentence to Muzaffar Ahmad Rather of Jogipora, Kulgam (in south Kashmir) after being in jail for 14 continuous years is against the internationally accepted norms of justice and fair play,” he said in a statement at Srinagar. His reaction came after three Lashkar-e-Taiba militants, including two Pakistani nationals arrested by BSF in 2007 from the Indo-Bangladesh border at Petrapole, were on January 21 sentenced to death by the court in Bongaon in West Bengal’s North 24-Parganas district in a case of waging war against the government. They were arrested by BSF while trying to enter India through its international border with Bangladesh at Petrapole on April 4, 2007.

The separatist leader claimed that Rather had been “targeted for being a Kashmiri”. “Indian judiciary had displayed miscarriage of justice in cases of Kashmiris earlier and this was yet another addition to this long list,” Mirwaiz said. He also called Rather’s parents over phone and expressed solidarity with them, asking them not to feel alone in this hour of difficulty, the statement said. In a separate statement, hardline Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani expressed “deep concern” over the pronouncement of death sentence to Rather.

Muzaffar Ahmad Rather of Jogipora, Kulgam (in south Kashmir) awarded death sentence in West Bengal

“Judiciary was thought the last resort for justice but instead they are acting as a tool for injustice. Indian judiciary has never delivered justice when it comes to people of the state (Jammu and Kashmir) and their decisions and rulings are always influenced by biased approach and politics,” he alleged. Geelani said the death sentence was “mockery of justice” and people of Jammu and Kashmir never “reposed faith in Indian judiciary” as they have witnessed how “these institutions were influenced in (Parliament attack convict) Afzal Guru’s case. Guru, a resident of Sopore township of north Kashmir, was hanged in Delhi’s Tihar jail on February 9, 2013.

Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri executed on 9 February 2013 at Delhi Tihar Central Prison

Geelani alleged that Kashmiri youth, arrested outside the state, were convicted and implicated on fake allegations and “even legal consultation or assistance is not provided and hence the verdicts declared by court are full of flaws.”

Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/india/mirwaiz-umar-farooq-slams-death-sentence-to-kashmiri-youth-4488173/ (Accessed 23 December 2018)

Family of Kashmiri on Death Row Hopes for Relief (West Bengal)

Amin Masoodi

Srinagar, India

2017-02-06

Relatives of an alleged militant from Indian Kashmir said Monday they would appeal a death sentence and verdict handed to him last month by a court in West Bengal state.

Muzaffar Ahmad Rather – a 27-year-old from Kulgam district in south Kashmir – was convicted on Jan. 21 along with Pakistani nationals Mohammad Abdullah and Mohammed Yunus on charges related to waging war against India as alleged members of militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). The three were arrested in 2007 while trying to enter India from Bangladesh. The accused had received weapons training in Pakistan and planned to carry out terror attacks in Indian-administered Kashmir, police said.

But Rather’s family refuted police claims, saying authorities had falsely implicated him. “The verdict has shocked us. We are in the process of arranging funds so we can appeal the verdict in the High Court. We are hoping the High Court will not only overturn the verdict but also order his release,” Rather’s brother Mohammad Shafi, a daily wage laborer, told BenarNews.

“Even the police concede that they found no arms or ammunition on him. So how can they claim he was planning terror strikes?” he said. Rather went missing in 2002, his father Abdul Majid, also a laborer, said, adding they found out about his 2007 arrest through the media. Last month, Rather’s family saw him for the first time since he disappeared 14 years ago, when they visited him in prison. His relatives said they didn’t know what led to his disappearence when he was around 15 years old. “For nearly 10 years he has been locked up in prison and now they want to hang him. This isn’t right. I don’t believe that my son is a terrorist,” Majid told BenarNews.

Muzaffar Ahmad Rather is seen in an undated photograph taken before he went missing in 2002.

Appropriate punishment?

Rather’s defense counsel said their appeal against the verdict, which evoked protests across Kashmir, would likely come up for hearing later this month. “I argued desperately before the judge that the prosecution had failed to prove their charges against Rather and he should be released. But I was shocked that the court still handed him capital punishment,” Sabroata Basu, Rather’s lawyer, told BenarNews by phone from Kolkata. “The prosecution admitted in court that they did not find any incriminating material from the client and that charges of waging war were levelled on the basis of suspicion. I am quite confident the High Court will overturn the verdict and release him unconditionally,” Basu said.

The three accused were booked under Indian Penal Code Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 121 (waging, or attempting to wage war) and 122 (collecting arms with intention of waging war against the government of India), according to Nishad Pervej, West Bengal police’s deputy inspector general. “They are members of Lashkar-e-Taiba and were planning attacks on army camps in Jammu and Kashmir,” Pervej told a news conference. The Himalayan region of Kashmir, claimed in its entirety by both India and Pakistan, has been in the midst of a separatist insurgency that has claimed over 70,000 lives since the late 1980s.

Militants killed

Over the weekend, two suspected militants were killed in a firefight that broke out when government forces intercepted a vehicle the suspects were riding in, police said. “We intercepted their vehicle near Sopore on the main highway. They lobbed grenades at the forces and were killed in retaliatory fire,” Superintendent of Police Imtiyaz Hussain told Agence France-Presse. Two police officers, including member of a special anti-militancy group, were injured in Saturday’s incident, Hussain said.

Following a shutdown call by separatists in response to the verdict in Rather’s case, several thousand anti-India protesters took to the streets to accuse the Indian government of falsely implicating Kashmiri youths in criminal cases. “The verdict is against the internationally accepted norms of justice,” senior separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq told BenarNews. “It is unfortunate that the Indian judiciary has once against demonstrated miscarriage of justice. We reiterate our demand of the unconditional release of Muzaffar Ahmad Rather and all political prisoners languishing in Indian prisons,” Farooq said.

Source: https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/bengali/death-row-02062017123733.html (Accessed 23 December 2018)

The Death Penalty Scenario in India

India is one of 193 countries that retains the death penalty. Some judges have delivered landmark verdicts upholding the rights of death row prisoners, while debates continue advocating abolition or reform of sentencing policies. The Indian government remains committed to retention, asserting executions occur only in “rarest of rare” cases. The death penalty applies to crimes including murder, kidnapping, terrorism, desertion, inducement to suicide of a minor or mentally-retarded person, and in certain cases of rape. Outrage over child rape and murder has intensified these discussions. After an unofficial eight-year moratorium, the government executed Ajmal Kasab (Mumbai attacks) in 2012 and Afzal Guru (Parliament attack) in 2013, both covertly and immediately after mercy petitions were rejected. Prior to this, Dhananjoy Chatterjee was executed in 2004 after 13 years on death row. Following these, many mercy petitions have been rejected, creating fear among death row convicts. Courts continue to hand down death sentences at an increasing rate. Empirical studies highlight the plight of death row prisoners. The India Exclusion Report 2017-18 found fair trial rights largely denied, with convicts often marginalized by caste, religion, poverty, and education. The Death Penalty Research Project (2015) documented socio-economic profiles and experiences of death row prisoners. Dr. Reena Mary George’s studies (2014, 2009) emphasized poverty, social exclusion, and dignity as central to death row experiences, and examined the human rights impact of the penalty. According to the National Crime Records Bureau 2015, 101 prisoners were on death row, with many sentences commuted to life. The “rarest of rare” doctrine introduced by the Supreme Court in the 1980s has not substantially limited death sentences, which have increased over the decades. Justice Joseph (2018) reaffirmed the Bachan Singh judgment but urged restriction of the death penalty to only those cases meeting its criteria. While updating the blog and conducting my own empirical studies, I observed the heinous nature of the crimes that were committed and thought about the families, about their loss, about the victims who for no fault of their own died. If I lost my relative or a dear friend, would I still oppose death penalty and would I still advocate to abolish the death sentence? Having worked in the criminal justice system and also having the seen the other side, where often it is the marginalized, vulnerable and oppressed who are on death row makes me want to advocate for abolition of this punishment. Victims should definitely get justice for their loss, for their pain. No one should escape the rule of law. As long as humanity exists; crime will exist. Should we not re-consider our sentencing policies? Reena Mary George