Earlier today, Aftab Bahadur Masih was hanged to death in Lahore, Pakistan. The execution was carried out nearly 23 years after the death penalty was imposed on him for the murder of three people.? ?
As per Pakistani media reports, Masih was 15 years old when the death sentence was imposed on him. Secondly, the conviction was based on his own confessional. At least two witnesses had testified that the confession had been extracted by force.
In an essay written before his execution, Masih had noted, "It would perhaps have been better not to have to think of what the police did to try to get me to confess falsely to this crime."
Since the age of 15, Masih had bobbled between life and death several times. Sometimes there was hope in the form of a fresh petition or appeal and then again he was plunged back to darkness once it would be rejected and an avenue closed.
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In 2008, the Asif Ali Zardari-led government had imposed the moratorium on death sentence soon after coming to power. This was lifted in stages since November 2014 by the Nawaz Sharif government. Amnesty International records that there have been around 140 executions in Pakistan since then.
T?his brings three important issues forward, that even India is grappling with:
- ? Underage offenders
- Confessions
- The death penalty
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Following the gang rape of a 23-year-old student in December 2012, the issue of underage offenders was widely discussed in India. One of the people convicted for the crime was less than 18 (the age of maturity in India).
The co-offenders had deposed that the minor offender had been the most brutal of them. They said he had inserted a rod into the victim's body and damaged her innards beyond repair, eventually leading to her death. It is said he cleaned out the bus after the incident and went about his normal activities.
The said minor offender was charged under the Juvenile Justice Act, the law that governs underage offenders in India. The punishment is lesser than that for adult offenders - not more than three years — there is no death penalty and the criminal record is expunged. This practice is followed in most of the civilised world to give a chance to a minor, whom the law considers to not know better.
The seriousness of the crime and the violence cannot be denied but, Indians, especially a large section of the media, went into overdrive. There was a demand for more serious punishment for violent crimes for those nearing adulthood. The gang-rape-accused minor was also said to be past 17.
Let's for a second consider that Masih is guilty. Could the 37-year-old Masih be held responsible for a crime when he was 15? Isn't the whole point of the juvenile justice system a rehabilitative approach to justice rather than penalising? The issue seems to have escaped Pakistan and India — instead of learning from such regressive acts?, these countries are still baying for the blood of minors.
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Confessions are the easiest way to close a case and proceed for prosecution — a method adopted by crooked and lazy investigators.
In the serial Nithari killings, Surinder Koli was convicted for the murder of Rimpa Halder. This was one amongst some 14 cases (out of 19 recovered corpses).
The bulk of the prosecution's case rested on Koli's confession, which he has alleged was extracted using torture. Further torture was allegedly used to ensure that Koli would not reveal the truth when confirming his confession before a magistrate.
"The medical practitioner at the magistrate's court failed to notice that Koli's body was bruised and his hands and feet were missing nails," his lawyers had said.
Koli's defence at the trial stage was a state-provided lawyer and he had little or no interest in his client's claims. This claim was also not accepted by higher courts, including the Supreme Court.
The media had already declared him guilty — serial killing of children was an unpardonable offence, and someone had to be held accountable, regardless of his actual guilt.
Masih's lawyers had said that they were trying to introduce fresh evidence of his innocence when the execution was carried out. A day earlier, another minor offender had been given reprieve in Pakistan.
In Koli's case too, his lawyers have urged that he is also a prime witness in the 14 other cases, where his former employer Moninder Pandher is charged. Besides, they had requested a proper court-monitored re-investigation into the crime with actual proof instead of a forcefully-extracted confession.
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The eagerness to end lives seems to persist in both India and Pakistan. The name Yakub Memon has been used as a face of terror in the country.
Memon was convicted and sentenced to death in the 1993 Bombay serial blasts case.
Yakub's brother, 'Tiger' Memon, was said to be one of Dawood Ibrahim's chief lieutenants. The entire crime syndicate is believed to have orchestrated the terror incident as retaliation against the Babri Masjid demolition by Kar Sevaks.
Yakub was said to have arranged logistics and handled the finance for the operation. Others who planted and detonated the bombs were allowed to turn approver and deposed against D-Company. Yakub Memon was the only one convicted.
The chartered accountant did handle finances for his brother from time to time but says he never questioned about his brother's activities. When Tiger Memon had asked him to arrange for cars, travel tickets and hand over money to some of his associates, Yakub had obliged.
After the blasts, Yakub, their parents and other family members were whisked away to Pakistan and then to the Middle East. He made his way back to India to cooperate with the investigation and said he wanted no part of his brother's unholy terror campaign. Instead, he was implicated in the terror incident.
In April, this year, the apex court rejected Yakub Memon's last review petition and he now awaits his date with the hangman.
Yakub's conviction was based on the 'confession' of a hawala operator and an approver, both of whom were trying to save their own skin. This form of evidence would not be form the sole determinant to impose a death sentence under the Indian Penal Code. But, Yakub Memon was charged and prosecuted under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (now repealed).
The hurry to push through these death sentences and legitimise confessions as evidence is certainly not the work of progressive minds.
