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India upholds death sentence for parliament raid
04 Aug 2005 13:22:34 GMT
Source: Reuters
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(Adds quotes, background) NEW DELHI, Aug 4 (Reuters) - India's top court on Thursday upheld the death sentence of a man convicted of involvement in a deadly attack on parliament by Muslim militants four years ago. But the Supreme Court commuted the death sentence given to to another man involved in the raid that reignited tensions with Pakistan after ruling that he was not guity of murder. Five gunmen stormed the heavily guarded parliament complex in New Delhi on Dec. 13, 2001 and killed nine people before being shot dead by guards. New Delhi blamed Pakistan for the raid -- a charge Islamabad denied -- and the nuclear-armed rivals mobilised their armies along the border and came close to a fourth war. Thursday's rulings came after Mohammed Afzal and Shaukat Hussain appealed against sentences handed down by a Delhi High Court under anti-terrorism legislation. A ruling from the two-judge Supreme Court bench concurred with the high court verdict that both men were guilty of terrorism and confirmed the death sentence given to Mohammed Afzal, as it was clear he was party to the conspiracy. But it absolved Shaukat Hussain of murder and commuted his death sentence to 10 years in jail. The Supreme Court also upheld the acquittal of college lecturer Abdul Rehman Geelani, who was sentenced to death by a lower trial court in connection with the parliament raid after a verdict later reversed by the Delhi High Court. Geelani told reporters later that he had been framed. "I was illegally arrested and tortured, so are many thousand of Kashmiri men," he said. "I have been on death row and there have been attempts on my life. I am lucky because I have survived but so many Kashmiris have been killed in false encounters even in Delhi, the capital of democratic India." India blamed a Pakistan-based rebel group, Jaish-e-Mohammed, for the attack on parliament and the group has been a focus of a crackdown on militants launched in Pakistan since the July 7 London bombings. Relations between India and Pakistan have thawed since 2003 and the neighbours have relaunched a peace process that has led to better transport, sporting and commercial links. Indian courts rarely award the death penalty and only about 40 people have been executed in the past 30 years. Officials say there are more than a dozen convicts on death row across the country. But their sentences have not been carried out because pleas for clemency are pending.
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