Have they lost their memories, their minds – or both?:

NEW DELHI – Despite the relatively speedy verdict in India’s trial of the sole surviving gunman of the 2008 Mumbai attacks and talk of Ajmal Amir Kasab being “fast-tracked” to the gallows by the end of the year, Kasab could yet exploit the appeals process and delay his execution by years or even decades.

Judge Madan Laxmanlal Tahaliyani last week handed Kasab a death sentence after he was found guilty of waging war on India, mass murder, conspiracy and terrorism offences during the Mumbai attacks of November 26, 2008, during which 166 people were killed and 300 injured.

Kasab’s sentencing marked the culmination of a dramatic, high-profile trial that had consumed the public’s attention for 17 months, with a record 653 witnesses and a record 1,522-page judgment. The case, concluded in 271 days, was the fastest ever terror trial conducted in India. In contrast, the trial for the bombings of Mumbai in 1993 dragged on for 14 years.

However, legal experts say the trial’s swift conclusion could be undermined by a long delay in the sentencing process – India has not carried out an execution since 2004 and only two since 1998. According to Section 366 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the Mumbai trial court now needs to send the evidence for the Kasab case to the Bombay High Court, which needs to confirm the sentence. This could take up to a year or more.

If the High Court approves Kasab’s death sentence, the law gives him the option of appealing to the Supreme Court – there is no indication yet of whether he will appeal. The appeal would then be examined in great detail. If the Supreme Court approves the death sentence, Kasab – being a non-Indian – could still file a mercy petition before the president under Article 72 of the constitution.

While the presidential pardon is pending, Kasab’s execution would stay suspended – perhaps for decades. The president’s decision on a mercy petition involves many formalities, such as a need to consult the Council of Ministers.

If Kasab’s sentencing were to be stretched out, this could mar achievements seen in the judicial system’s handling of the trial. Observers say that despite the complexity and high drama of the trial, the court was still able to act swiftly and transparently. The legal fraternity is impressed that the rights of a man as clearly guilty as Kasab, who was caught on camera killing indiscriminately, were upheld by the system.

“The trial has depicted the Indian democratic processes in a favorable light. It has brought the massacre’s villain to book through the right legal procedures without any state pressure or political interference,” said Delhi-based advocate and activist Kamini Jaiswal. The lawyer said the trial underscored the “robustness of India’s criminal justice system”. All nine of the other gunmen who stormed into Mumbai with Kasab were killed during the attack.

A reminder of just some of Qasab's handiwork

Judge Tahilyani has been hailed as having conducted the trial with fairness, with his acquittal of Kasab’s Indian co-conspirators – Fahim Ansari and Sabahuddin Ahmad – for lack of evidence underscoring his refusal to crack under intense public pressure.

Despite the enormity of his crime, if Kasab does decide to appeal he could cite circumstances such as his young age, underprivileged background and lack of legal knowledge. The judge, on the other hand, is legally bound to give reasons for choosing capital punishment and not life imprisonment.

Once all due processes are cleared, Kasab’s death could be further delayed by a queue on India’s death row, where over 300 convicts await execution. However, Law Minister Veerappa Moily has said Kasab could be a special case. “This is one such case which needs to fast-tracked by the High Court. Sentiment is riding very high,” Moily told NDTV this week.

“If he doesn’t file any appeal anywhere I think the chances of him getting hanged this year are quite high,” Home Secretary G K Pillai told the CNN-IBN news channel in an interview.

Public anger at the prospect of Kasab evading execution came alongside heightened resentment of Pakistan’s failure to prosecute leaders of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) group believed to have masterminded the attack. Some point to the recent case of the Pakistani-American who tried to bomb Times Square, Faisal Shahzad, as proof that Pakistan’s government and security forces are not serious enough about cracking down on militancy.

“It’s not just one incident here. This is part of a series, which is no longer an India-Pakistan problem,” Jasjit Singh, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in New Delhi, told the Associated Press.

India’s Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram is set to visit Pakistan on June 26 for a regional conference in Islamabad, where he will hold talks with Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik as part of a rapprochement process. Although Pakistan says it has begun a “secret” trial of some LeT members, India insists that full-fledged talks will not begin until terrorist groups are fully dismantled on Pakistani soil.

Apparently, there are 300-odd Death Row inmates ahead of Qasab and in the normal scheme of things it could take up to a year for him to be executed – and there is the further possibility of a string of appeals. But isn’t Qasab a little different to the others?

This is going to prove to be a game of ‘who blinks first’ – and on many levels: the Indian judiciary vs. Qasab, India vs Pakistan, non-Muslims to the Ummah around the globe. The decisiveness or otherwise of the response of the Indian government in this case has the potential to substantially affect interactions on all three levels for years to come.

Our view is that, as the only surviving perpetrator of an expectionally vile, heinous crime against humanity, Qasab should be expedited to the gallows. The only language radical Islamists respect is that of being met with unremitting force.

Adhering to the norms expected of a fast-developing society with a strongly-rooted legal system such as India’s and indulging Qasab accordingly will be exploited by the Islamists to the hilt; and seen as a fatal sign of weakness – a green light to Muslim terrorists and agitators everywhere.

But how to achieve this? The only real way is for India to treat Qasab and the Mumbai massacre as an exception – backed by a change in the law, or the use of any emergency powers that might be available. In other words – by any means necessary.

If the constantly regurgitated meme of Islamists and their apologists – that terrorists such as Qasab represent only a Tiny Minority of Extremists™ – holds true, then surely, there should be no backlash at all.. should there?

Rather than worrying about the possible fallout from making this monster a martyr, Indian leaders should be focused much more sharply on the consequences of making him a pioneer. He needs to be executed – and soon .

Let him swing – and to hell with the Islamists, UN, the Human Rights industry and the ‘international community’.

[Source: Asia Times]


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