The Fight Against Terror Drill

After the Constitutional Court of Spain refused to admit our plea, we approached the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for justice. Since we approached the ECHR, the Spanish authorities have lost their sleep. Knowing fully well that their case cannot stand scrutiny in an independent court, they have started resorting to ridiculous ways to sabotage the case.

Since the last few months, Roshan Jamal Khan is being subjected to racial slurs. His religion is also being subjected to insults. He is also asked inappropriate questions about his religious belief. He is being subjected to mental torture to break his brave, fighting spirit.

Recently, the Spanish police authorities took photos of him in the prison with the books and magazines that he reads. Roshan Jamal Khan just cannot read inflammatory articles or crime novels as all the books and magazines are scrutinized by the prison authorities before being given to the prisoners. And, how does it concern the police authorities when the highest court of Spain has closed the case by sentencing Roshan Jamal Khan? How can the police probe a person once he has been sentenced? Or, do the police authorities want to post pictures on Facebook?

Earlier, the prison authorities had returned his legal case file that was sent to him by post from Spain itself citing security reasons. What could his case file have endangered is beyond common sense? Even the small, religious booklets sent to him from India, to provide answers to all the inappropriate questions about our religion, was returned.

A word of appreciation for the exemplary, apathetic attitude of the Indian embassy and the Indian Government wouldn’t be out of place here. Leave alone raising even a whimper of protest or helping Roshan Jamal Khan, the Indian Government did not even think it worthwhile to monitor the proceedings in the court.

It was only once that an Indian diplomat visited Roshan Jamal Khan in prison – in February 2011 after the Spanish Supreme Court judgment. That also was to rub salt into his wounds. The diplomat asked Roshan Jamal Khan who was paying for his legal defense. Roshan Jamal Khan told the diplomat that this question was irrelevant now. He said that it would have been better had the diplomat at least come for the hearings if not provided legal help. Thereafter, there was no other visit by any Indian diplomat. The question that comes to mind is what prevented the Indian Government from helping its citizen when its own investigative agencies (CBI & ATS) had given a clean chit to Roshan Jamal Khan? Why has it remained a mute spectator to the plight of Roshan Jamal Khan caught in the fight against terror drill?

All agencies involved in falsely implicating Roshan Jamal Khan in this terror case seem to have panicked after we approached ECHR for justice and are trying to save their skins. But, in panic, they will surely commit more blunders that will expose their phony fight against terrorism.

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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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Lonely Planet

After the death of Roshan Jamal Khan’s father, Babu Peshkar Khan, on Wednesday, 28th September, 2011, this world turned into a lonely planet for his mother, Khatmunissa. She followed her husband to his heavenly abode two days later on Friday, September 30, 2011.

We pray to Allah that no person should be so ill-fated as to lose both the parents within two days and not be able to attend their last rites. It is even more tragic that Roshan has to mourn the deaths of his parents alone in solitary confinement in a far away foreign land.

The love bond that Roshan’s parents shared with each other was so strong that one could not live without the other. In fact, love is in abundance in Roshan’s family. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that a person coming from such a lovely family can ever have evil intentions to destroy human lives which Roshan has been accused of. Intentions of matadors are evil, not of the bull that is gored to death while defending itself.

Khatmunissa was going to perform Hajj this year. Her application was also approved by the Hajj committee. She had prepared for the Hajj journey, but it seems that Allah decided that she should undertake the journey to meet Him. May Allah grant her the reward for performing Hajj with everlasting, heavenly life!

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Waiting for Son, Death Arrived

Roshan Jamal Khan’s father, Babu Peshkar Khan, spread the milk of compassion & humanity in his locality throughout his life through his milk dairy. He was 88 years old. He quit managing his dairy in April this year when he fell ill. His family doctor had given up hope.

Fearing the worst, we requested the Spanish Government through the Spanish Ambassador to grant parole to Roshan Jamal Khan so that his father could meet him before leaving for his heavenly abode. As Roshan had completed more than 3 years of his 6 year sentence and was to be deported to India soon, we expected the Spanish Government to show some mercy by granting the parole. We had also assured them of his return to Spain to complete the deportation formalities. But, regret to say that hearts of the matadors remained true to their reputation of cruelty. It is sadder to know that animal rights organization do more to secure mercy for animals than human rights organizations do for human rights violations.

Waiting to hug his son, Roshan Jamal Khan, who has been wrongly imprisoned in Spain, death embraced Babu Peshkar Khan on 28-9-11. May Allah grant him peace through everlasting, heavenly life!

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World Cup for Human Rights Violations

Congratulations to the Indian cricket team for winning the World Cup. It was a marvelous Saturday night when the Indian cricket team captain, M. S. Dhoni, played a captain’s knock to steer India to glory by lobbing the cricket ball out of the ground for a six to win the tournament and become the champions of the world of cricket.

India is the world champion in cricket whereas Spain is the world champion in football – both are the most popular sports of the world with a large fan following. Sportsmen of these two sports are given the status of demigods ruling the hearts & minds of the masses. They have immense power to annihilate opponents on the battle ground of the game. But, they have to follow the strict rules of the battle to engage in it. If any dishonest means are employed in this battle then the players are considered as incompetent & bad sportsmen.

The champions of these two sports were competent and good. They showed the world that without abusing the power they have and playing strictly by the rules they can still win the game. One wishes that those vested with real powers of the world could emulate these sportsmen and play by the rules instead of abusing their powers and using devious means to achieve their goals. Though, India and Spain are Champions of the World in cricket & football respectively, it is very unfortunate that they are not Champions of Human Rights. In fact, they should be awarded the World Cup for Human Rights Violations.

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Surprises Galore!

The minimum sentence of a terror accused in Spain is 8 ½ years. Hence, it is surprising that the Supreme Court of Spain has reduced the sentence of 8 ½ years, handed down to Roshan Jamal Khan by the High Court, to 6 years. This proves that the terror charge against him is false.

Roshan Jamal Khan has been sentenced for associating with a terror group on the basis of an allegation of a faceless voice that does not even utters Roshan Jamal Khan’s name during his testimony.

The hearing of the appeal against the High Court verdict took place on 15-12-2010. The hearing went on for hardly 2 hours. The verdict was given on 29-12-2010 which is also surprising as it was Christmas vacation. It seems that the hearing was just a charade. Everything seems to have been premeditated. In fact, our advocate had also given this hint to Roshan Jamal Khan as well as us at this sort of judgment in his e-mail to us and was afraid that political pressure might influence the Supreme Court decision.

More surprising is the callous attitude of the Government of India. Despite the clear injustice and blatant violation of human rights, the Indian Embassy in Spain and the Ministry of External Affairs remained a mute spectator. Far from helping us in our legal battle, the Government of India did not even bother to monitor our case. This is in sharp contrast to our government’s swift move to allow the European Union’s delegation of 8 members to monitor Dr. Binayak Sen’s case.

It is also strange that the European Union has taken it upon itself to monitor a case in Asia – an Indian being prosecuted by the Indian authorities in India – while it has turned a blind eye to the injustice done in Europe by a European country to an Asian (Indian). It seems the European Union is suffering from presbyopia. We wish that the European Union would focus on Roshan Jamal Khan’s case and help him to get justice.

Except for the kind cooperation and continued support of the fourth estate that gave us the moral courage to continue our fight against injustice, not a single human rights organization provided any help to us despite seeking it. The Amnesty International meekly expressed its helplessness while the UNHRC never cared to reply.

Although the decision of the Supreme Court of Spain revolts against justice and fair play, we have not given up hope and resolve to fight against the tyranny of the false fight against terrorism that actually terrorizes common people. Insha Allah, truth & justice shall prevail.

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Brilliant Legal Directors

Though this post has been delayed, it should not mean that it was not thought of before. Since quite a few months, we had wanted to acknowledge the help provided by the legal fraternity in our fight for justice. Through this post, we wish to express our gratitude to all those men & women of law who provided their assistance and are still lending us their legal expertise in getting Roshan Jamal Khan acquitted with dignity.

The advice provided by Mumbai High Court advocates – Adv. N. U. Khan, Adv. Sharad Jani, Adv. Usman Chishti & Adv. Chandra Naik – was very important. We wish to thank all of them.

Special thanks go to famous criminal advocate Majeed Memon and advocate Mihir Desai for their legal analysis of the case that was published in The Times of India. The legal dissection of the case by these two stalwarts of law redeemed our dignity in the society. Many thanks to both the advocates once again.

We would also like to express our gratitude to well-known advocate Parvez Ubhare of Mumbai High Court who was instrumental in arranging two press conferences and providing all the legal aspects of the case to the media which were very important to clear all doubts about the case. We thank advocate Ubhare and look forward to his continued support as we believe that a much bigger role is to be played by him in this case.

A note of regret would seem to be out of place in this post. But, things would have been quite different if we had taken the advice of prominent advocate Ms. Nandita Rao of Delhi High Court. The verdict would have been favourable to us if we had acted upon her advice. But, our fear due to some compelling reasons stopped her midway in her noble intentions of helping us. We apologize to Ms. Nandita Rao for our impropriety and thank her and all her Mumbai colleagues including advocate Mr. Sethi of Delhi High Court. Insha Allah, Ms. Nandita Rao’s brave efforts will be detailed if ever we publish a book on this case after the acquittal of Roshan Jamal Khan.

Finally, the men on the front who put up a brave defence – our Spanish advocates. We appreciate the hard work that Mr. Benet Salellas Vilar, Mr. Jacobo Teijolo Casanova & their team put in to demolish the case of the prosecution. We also appreciate their quick appeal in the Spanish Supreme Court after the decision of the High Court. We would like to express our gratitude to all of them and expect the august Supreme Court of Spain will undo the injustice that has been perpetuated on us.

Before concluding, we would like to pay our respects to the soul of advocate late Mr. Sabatillan Salellas Vilar who not only took up our case but also offered his services for much lower fees than he usually charges as he believed that all the accused are innocent. May his soul rest in peace.

Although, we were dejected after the High Court decision but we never lost hope. We will continue our fight for justice under the brilliant direction and guidance of all the above mentioned experts of law. Insha Allah, truth shall prevail.

P. S. : We welcome the President of United States of America, Hon’ble Barack Obama, to India. It would have been better if Mr. Barack Obama had released one of our innocent Indian students, Mr. Vikram Buddhi, as a Diwali gift to 1 billion Indians. Never mind the lapse, we request the kind President to release him now as a Christmas gift. Hope Uncle Sam will not disappoint us.

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