geelani was convicted by the court today. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/comp/articleshow?artid=31460435
Chan Mahanta said on AssamNet: + The following is from the Sentinel: + + + + + + A Flawed Justice System + Tavleen Singh + + When human rights lawyer, Nandita Haksar, rang me to ask if I would write + something about the 'Geelani case' my first reaction was unsympathetic. Was + this the Geelani who was the son-in-law of the Kashmiri politician, I + asked, because then I was definitely not interested. Even if he were only a + journalist he would surely have known that the Jamaat-e-Islami his + father-in-law headed openly supported militant groups waging a violent + struggle to make Kashmir part of Pakistan. I must have got to about this + point in my sanctimonious tirade when she interrupted me to say she was + speaking of Syed Abdul Rahman Geelani, who before his arrest in connection + with the December 13 terrorist attack on Parliament had been a professor at + Delhi University. + + "I am as opposed to terrorism as anyone" she said "but this man has been + wrongly arrested and it will not help the fight against terrorism if this + kind of thing is allowed to happen". She then sent me a large bunch of + papers on the case, which include copies of appeals from Amnesty + International and Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) + teachers as well as details of Geelani's arrest and trial. Reading through + them left me horrified and saddened and came as yet another reminder that + unless the evils of the criminal justice system in India are not removed + urgently we could one day soon see a total collapse of the rule of law. + + The week of the first anniversary of the terrorist attack on Parliament - + what some call our 9/11 - is a good one to draw attention to the grave + injustice done to Mr Geelani and his family. On December 16, his case comes + up for judgement and his lawyers are hopeful that he will be acquitted but + what happened to him needs to be recounted, over and over again, to draw + attention to the kind of injustice that is being perpetrated in the name of + fighting terrorism. + + Professor Geelani, who taught Arabic at Delhi University, was arrested a + day after the attack on Parliament. Why? Because as a Kashmiri his + telephone calls were being routinely tapped by the police and they + intercepted a conversation between him and his brother in Kashmir. + + The police claim that during his conversation, the professor said something + that sounded like he was justifying the attack on Parliament. The + translation from Kashmiri to Hindi, on which they based this charge, was + done by an illiterate vegetable seller and when Geelani's lawyers had it + translated by two other people they found that the words yeh zaroori hota + hai that supposedly justified the attack did not exist on the tape + recording of the conversation. But, since the arrest was made under the + dreaded POTA the professor has spent his past year in Tihar Jail in a + maximum security cell. POTA does not allow for bail. + + In Geelani's statement to the special court in which he is being tried, + this is what he says happened to him after his arrest. "On December 14, + 2001 after I was arrested I was blindfolded and taken to some place which + was like farmhouse. At that farm house tea was ordered by the police + officials and on the sugar sachles (sic) Ashoka Countryside was written. At + the farm house I was made naked and tortured and I was hanged upside down. + I was forced to make confessional statement but I made no confessional + statement as I was not involved. Thereafter I was threatened if I made no + confessional statement, my family members would be eliminated. On 14th + night I was brought to special cell Lodhi Colony where I found my wife, my + two children, my brother, my brother-in-law and one another relative at the + special cell. They had already been arrested." + + Despite eminent journalists, lawyers and writers - including Arundhati Roy + and Rajni Kothari - being part of the All India Defence Committee for Syed + Abdul Rehman Geelani, despite the appeals from Amnesty International, the + professor has remained in jail. + + If Professor Geelani is acquitted next week he will, ironically, be + considered among the lucky ones who manage in their lifetime to get justice + from a system so deeply flawed that ten years after 200 people were killed + in the Mumbai bombings, justice has still not been done. + + Last week, on the very day that Dawood Ibrahim's brother, Anees, allegedly + one of those who masterminded the bombings, was arrested in Dubai, the + trial finally ended in a Mumbai special court. It began on June 30, 1995. + If this is how long it takes to bring terrorists to justice in India can we + even dare to claim that we have a working criminal justice system? When I + put this question to a Mumbai lawyer who supported last week's lawyers + strike against longer working hours he said, "The problem is not created by + us lawyers but by the fact that we have too few judges. If there were + enough judges then cases would not take so long to be concluded." + + When looked at from the perspective of an outsider, though, it seems pretty + much as if everyone is to blame for the fact that to clear the backlog of + cases in Indian courts it is estimated that it would take more than 325 + years. Most of all, though, the Government is to blame for never having + paid enough attention to rectifying the wrongs in the system. When did you + last hear, for instance, of action being taken against police officers who + arrested and tortured an innocent man? When did you last hear of police + officers in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu being punished for their inability to + catch a murderous criminal like Veerappan? When did you last hear of a Law + Minister making a determined effort to rid us of the hundreds of obsolete + laws that clog the system? When did you last hear of action being taken + against government departments that contribute to the clogging by filing + pointless cases? + + It is estimated that more than 70 per cent of civil cases in our courts + involve some government department or other as litigant. In most cases, the + matter could be settled out of court but in a criminal waste of taxpayers' + money and the nation's time, these cases languish in courtrooms across the + country. Is it any wonder then that even when terrorists are on trial the + case can take anything from ten to 20 years? + + Things are so bad that even if we did manage to extradite Dawood Ibrahim's + brother for trial in an Indian court he could remain under trial and + unpunished for the rest of his life. It is important to remember, as I have + said before in this column, that two of the subcontinent's major terrorist + leaders Azhar Masood and Omar Sheikh were in Indian jails for five years + before being released in exchange for the passengers of IC 814. + + Sheikh has since been convicted by a Pakistani court for the murder of + journalist, Daniel Pearl, and Masood is believed to be the mastermind of + the attack on Parliament. A justice system that punishes innocent people + and allows terrorists to remain 'under trial' is a justice system that is + sick. When are we going to get a Law Minister or a Chief Justice who + realizes that the malaise is now terminal? + -- saurav
