9 February 2013
India: New execution
points to worrying and regressive trend
Today’s execution of
Mohammad Afzal Guru indicates a disturbing and regressive trend towards
executions shrouded in secrecy and the resumption of death penalty use in
India, said Amnesty International.
“We condemn the
execution in the strongest possible terms. This very regrettably puts India in
opposition to the global trend towards moving away from the death penalty”,
said Shashikumar Velath, Programmes Director at Amnesty International India.
Indian authorities
hanged Mohammad Afzal Guru at 0800 hrs in Tihar Jail, New Delhi on 9 February
2013. His execution is the second in India in three months after an eight-year
hiatus.
Mohammed Afzal Guru
was sentenced to death in December 2002 after being convicted of conspiracy to
attack the Parliament of India, waging war against India and murder in December
2001. He was tried by a special court designated under the Prevention of
Terrorism Act (POTA), a law which fell considerably short of international fair
trial standards and has since been repealed, in 2004, after serious allegations
of its widespread abuse.
Seven members of the
security forces including a woman constable were killed in the December 2001
attack on India’s Parliament complex in central Delhi, as were the five persons
who had carried out the attack.
Afzal Guru’s death
sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court in August 2005, and his mercy
petition was reportedly rejected by the President on 3 February 2013. Of the
other three persons initially arrested for the attack, Afsan Guru was released
without charges. The trial court also imposed death sentences on
Delhi-based professor S A R Geelani and Shaukath Hussain Guru, but the Supreme
Court acquitted Geelani of all charges and commuted Shaukath Hussain Guru’s
sentence to 10 years’ imprisonment. He was released from Tihar jail in December
2010.
“Serious questions
have been raised about the fairness of Afzal Guru’s trial. He did not receive
legal representation of his choice or a lawyer with adequate experience at the
trial stage. These concerns were not addressed,” said Shashikumar.
“Before Ajmal Kasab’s
execution in November, Indian authorities used to make information about the
rejection of mercy petitions and dates of execution available to the public
prior to any executions. The new practice of carrying out executions in secret
is highly disturbing.”
It is not clear
whether Afzal Guru was given the opportunity to seek a judicial review of the
decision to reject his mercy petition – a practice that has been followed in
other cases.
According to initial
reports from Kashmir, Afzal Guru’s family in Kashmir say they were not informed
of his imminent execution, in violation of international standards on the use
of the death penalty. The body was also not returned to the family for last
rites and burial, in violation of international standards.
India is among a
minority of countries which continue to use the death penalty. In total, 140
countries, more than two thirds of the world’s countries, are abolitionist in
law or in practice. In 2011, only 21 states in the world executed, meaning that
90 per cent of the world was execution-free.
Amnesty International
opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception, regardless of the
nature or circumstances of the crime; guilt, innocence or other characteristics
of the individual; or the method used by the state to carry out the execution.
It opposes it as a violation of the right to life as recognized in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the ultimate cruel, inhuman and
degrading punishment.
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