Wishing A Happy New Year for Justice

The Spanish Supreme Court had absolved Roshan Jamal Khan of all terror charges except the charge of associating with a terror group and reduced the sentence of 8 ½ years to 6 (see Surprises Galore!) . Consequently, we approached the Constitutional Court. The Constitutional Court refused to admit our plea. It took nearly a year for the Constitutional Court to refuse our plea. This has prolonged the incarceration of Roshan Jamal Khan to 4 years. It seems that the Spanish authorities deliberately used delaying tactics to prolong Roshan’s stay in prison.

One of the finest examples of upholding the supremacy of law and justice was provided by Australia in the Dr. Mohammad Haneef case. Though the case related to terrorism, Australia did not use the glamorous pretext of fight against terrorism to terrorise any person without any substantial and concrete evidence. It restored Dr. Haneef's honour and compensated him for wrongly implicating him. European countries that pride themselves on being more liberal and progressive than other countries should learn some lessons from Australia and emulate it in matters of justice and human rights.

It is also distressing to note that the Indian Embassy and the Ministry of External Affairs of India have still not cared to provide any help to its citizen. Despite the several pleas made to them, the Ministry of External Affairs has not even bothered to direct the Indian Embassy in Spain to at least monitor the case.

After the Spanish Supreme Court judgement last year, we had approached the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). But, ECHR refused to admit our plea as one of their rules stipulates that the petitioner should exhaust all options of justice available in the country of the dispute before appealing to them. We, therefore, had to approach the Spanish Constitutional Court early this year.

Now that the Spanish Constitutional Court has refused to admit our plea, we intend to approach ECHR again for justice and wish it will be a Happy New Year for justice and Roshan Jamal Khan.


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