Jan. 28
PORTUGAL/INDIA: Don Salem's extradition cleared (LEAD) In a major victory for Indian authorities, the Portuguese Supreme Court has cleared the extradition of underworld don Abu Salem who allegedly masterminded the bloody 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai. The verdict is seen as a major victory for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) because India does not have any extradition treaty with Portugal. "The Portuguese court has paved the way for his (Salem's) extradition," a CBI spokesman told IANS here Friday. The court, while hearing petitions filed by Salem as well as CBI, turned down the don's plea against extraditing him to India. The same Portuguese court had earlier declined to hand over Salem to India, apprehending that he would be sentenced to death. Portugal is a signatory to a European treaty prohibiting capital punishment. But New Delhi assured Lisbon that Salem would not be awarded the death sentence. With the court verdict, the CBI will soon send a team to bring back Salem and his starlet-girlfriend Monica Bedi, who is wanted in a forged passport case. The Portuguese court had cleared Bedi's extradition in December last year. "We are waiting for the Portuguese government's instructions and only then we will send a team," the CBI spokesman said. "When this will happen (government's instructions) cannot be predicted. But we hope it will happen soon," he said. Born to a poor family in Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh, Salem worked as a driver and a telephone booth operator but came over to Mumbai and took to petty crime initially. After being introduced to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, Salem became one of his closest associates and soon turned into one of his favourite hit men. Although he fell out subsequently with Dawood's "D Company", Salem allegedly played a major role in the March 1993 bomb attacks in Mumbai, India's financial capital, that left nearly 300 people dead. He then fled reportedly to the Middle East on a forged Pakistani passport and made his way to Europe, before getting caught in Portugal in September 2002. Salem was variously described as a vicious man who also allegedly masterminded the murder of music magnate Gulshan Kumar and was linked to some other attacks on Bollywood personalities. Since the court judgement, Bedi, who met Salem at a concert, has pleaded with President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take a lenient view of her wrongdoing. She also claimed that she knew nothing about Salem's activities when she met him. In hand-written letters in November last year, Bedi pleaded for a "2nd chance" in life and cancellation of criminal proceedings initiated against her by CBI. Both Salem and Bedi were arrested in Portugal in September 2002 on 3 counts, including entering the country on forged documents. (source: Indo-Asian News Service) UNITED NATIONS/IRAN: A United Nations human rights body called on Iran on Friday to abolish the death penalty as well as amputation, flogging and stoning for people who committed crimes as minors. The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child "deplored" the fact that during its 3-week session an Iranian was executed for a killing carried out when he was 17 -- contradicting Iran's statement that it had suspended the death penalty for people accused of crimes while juveniles. U.N. officials said Iman Farrokhi, found guilty of killing a member of Iran's security forces at age 17, was hanged in Tehran's notorious Evin prison on Jan. 20. (source: Alertnet) UGANDA: The Death of the Death Sentence Play: Akalabba "The Gallows" Group: Diamonds Ensemble Playwright: Ashraf Ssemwogerere Director: Kato Lubwama Showing: Cooper Theatre Date:Feb 28-30 When you a comedian to acts tragedy, you expect a tragic result. But Kato Lubwama and his mainly comic group have surpassed such illusions and can rightly be regarded as good actors. Akalabba is a drama that criticises the death sentence. It is a play that has stood the test of time and manages to prove its strength. Eeh! Why should the innocent go to the gallows? You, over there, does anyone have the authority to take your life? The timing of the play may be questionable. Akalabba has always been shown during religious festivities or when the debate on the death sentence is played and covered by the media. It is setting that reflects death, a total death, which calls for the motives and actions of the human race into question. Crimes are committed under the cover of darkness, but we are able to see it. The wrong judgments are passed, knowingly or unknowingly, under darkness. The lighting is more illuminating than distracting. Indeed, the audience may feel that it should be relieved of this darkness, this evil that threatens to run for their necks as it fights them to the gallows. Admirers of Nnvanugi (lawyer) as a musician will revere her in her theatrical performance. She is the person for theatregoers. Her energy, though not infectious, is less exhausting. Nnvanungi's heavily American-accented tongue rolls with her eyes and the audience seems to roll along. As expected, the naming of characters in a morality play takes centre stage. It is no wonder that the murderer is named Kalabayi, a Luganda sound that closely refers to the guillotine. You can glean the most salient traits of the principal characters, events and moral lessons, but without the shading and detail that made these elements feel true. This makes the play infectious, but for a while. We may feel like strangling the abusers of justice, but that is that. Theatregoers willing to use their imagination will find this play mind boggling. It may spell out the faults in our society, but it lets you think through it. It is a play of "hopeful existentialism" that is filled with dehumanised characters. The society strives to regain a human face and by the end, we can see a less beastly human face. Women characters have always been known by theatre enthusiasts to be the moralists in theatre. With the soft tone of voice and motherly countenance, Nvanungi and Ann Natabi (judge), give the play its highly needed saving face. Mrs Segoba's (Olivia Wamala) restless vigour and romanticism lend the dark play relief, keeping the audience able to understand the dark world. The close relationship between greed, money and death is symbolic. What starts as a lunatic love to become rich ends up in a bloody death. Ashraf Ssemwogerere has a large following as an actor and it is as well he takes up the central role in the play. He raises expectation. Though he is the innocent Segoba that is to face the gallows, one feels that he is capable of anything. Akalabba relies on a restoration at its climax. Segoba manages to escape from the noose, only to find a willing helper he mistook for a bad guy. A fight ensues. How can they win against evil without a fight? When he finally finds his life, death is "killed". The murderer is arrested. The Kalabba is no more. Life in the play is not always pretty, but it is in abundance. Those who deserve it get it fully, but after a struggle with death. No noose is good news, but the noose for an innocent man is unbearable. (source: New Vision)
