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| India-Pakistan |
| Military 'justice' |
| 2015-04-04 |
| [DAWN] HAD there been any hesitation in recognising that the constitutionally empowered military courts system hastily set up in the wake of December's Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. school massacre is one that is abhorrent and in violation of the most basic principles of justice, then the revelation that six accused have been sentenced to death and a seventh sentenced to life imprisonment should extinguish even that vestige of doubt. That's what happens when judges and prosecutors and sometimes defense attorneys are subject to threats... Consider first the form as announced over the DG ISPR's Twitter account -- "#Mil Courts: Army Chief confirms death sentence of 6 hard core murderous Moslems tried by the recently established mil courts." There is surely something terribly wrong with a judicial system in which the first time the public learns about death sentences for six individuals is via a press officer of a non-judicial head of a military institution. Are judges no longer allowed to speak via their judgements in even the most solemn of cases? There are then the substantive issues. Who are these men? What crimes have they been accused of and now convicted for? What evidence was presented? What kind of legal representation was available to the accused? And what is the appeals process that is available to the convicted men? All that is known, via an ISPR blurb, is that "In view of the nature and gravity of offences preferred against each, 6 murderous Moslems have been awarded death sentences and one life imprisonment by the military courts". Even that vague offering has a serious flaw. How were six of the accused deemed deserving of death, but one given life imprisonment for the same category of crimes? From a sceptical point of view, could it be that one of the first batch of convicts was 'only' sentenced to life imprisonment to try and dispel the notion that the new military courts are little more than execution chambers? |
| Posted by:Fred |