A Few Good Men

At the outset, I would like to apologise for the delay in publishing this post containing the names of the journalists who helped us a lot by making the public as well as all concerned authorities aware of the injustice meted out to my brother, Roshan Jamal Khan, in Spain.

The sympathetic reporting by these journalists is a debt that cannot be repaid by us. Besides, highlighting the injustice of the Spanish Government, these journalists have also highlighted the indifference of the Indian Government in securing the release of its law-abiding citizen.

Nevertheless, the continued support of these men & women, who are truly the custodians of righteousness in this age, may, Insha Allah, succeed in securing the release of my brother.

It’s not just Tom Cruise and Demi Moore who can claim to be “A Few Good Men”, but the following journos can also lay claim to be A Few Good Men and Women also :

Indian Express

• Parnab Dhal Samanta


• Sagnik Chowdhury


• Neeraj Priyadarshi


• Amitabh Sinha


• Anubhuti Vishnoi


• Aishwarya Iyer


• Swatee Kher


• Pradip Dal

The Times of India

• Mateen Hafeez


• Anahita Mukherjee


• Archana Sharma


• Mohammad Wajihuddin


• Manju V


• Tejal Pandey

Hindustan Times

• Stavan Desai


• Vignesh Iyer


• Alifiya Khan


• Hemant Padalkar


• Kunal Patil


• Ritesh Uttam Chandani

Mumbai Mirror

• Anand Holla


• Deeptiman Tiwary

Mid-day

• Vinod Kumar Menon


• Ketan Ranga

Loksatta

• Ashwini Shende

Navbharat Times

• Sachin Tripathi

Press Trust of India

• Sunanda Parmeshwar


• Sunil Shivdasani

Inquilab

• Shahid Lateef


• Kazim Shaikh


• Abdulhai Ansari

Urdu Times

• Farooq Ansari


• Shakil Rashid

Rashtriya Sahara

• Aziz Barhi


• Wasim Sanjar

Hindustan

• Sarfaraz Arzoo

ANI

• Raziq Khan

IANS

• Quaid Najmi

List of electronic media will be published next followed by a list of its journalists.

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Press For Justice

Media has always had the good sense to distinguish right from wrong. Be it a small skirmish, fake encounter or big terror acts, the media has always distinguished the wrong from the wronged. Indian media, being free and independent, has always presented facts in the right perspective and highlighted injustices wherever it is being perpetuated. As such, Indians know what button to press to seek justice if it has not been properly dispensed. Therefore, Indians should be grateful that they have an independent media unlike some of its neighbouring countries.

After my brother, Roshan Jamal Khan, was arrested in Spain, the Indian fourth estate stood like a pillar of moral support for us. It gave wide coverage to the wrongful arrest of my brother by the Spanish police. It highlighted his detention for nearly 2 years without trial. I, therefore, wish to express my gratitude to the following newspapers through this post :

• Indian Express


• The Times of India


• Hindustan Times


• Mumbai Mirror


• Mid-day


• Press Trust of India (PTI)


• United News of India (UNI)


• Loksatta


• Navbharat Times


• Inquilab


• Urdu Times


• Rashtriya Sahara


• Daily Hindustan


• Nai Duniya


• Dainik Jagran


• Amar Ujala

List of journalists and TV channels will follow in next post.

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My Name Is Khan

“My name is Khan. Shahrukh Khan!”
“Detain him!”

That brief conversation is what must have taken place before Shahrukh Khan was detained at an American airport a few years ago. It seems that my husband, Roshan Jamal Khan, must have got caught in a similar situation.

The surname “Khan” was the decisive factor for the detention of Shahrukh Khan in the US. It seems to have been so even in my husband’s case in Barcelona.

A person with a Muslim name is suspect. But, one with a surname as Khan is more suspect. If a surname can make people of the materially developed world so prejudiced, then it comes as no surprise that they are so biased against our traditions & cultures of which they have little or no knowledge at all.

Though the West has explored the moon & space, it still has to explore the traditions & cultures of the East on this Earth. Though developed in materials, its mind has got stunted due to the cobwebs of barbaric Dark Ages that has still not cleared. The West has not yet come out of the Dark Ages of its mind.

A rose by any other name can smell as good and a bush by any other name can be as sinister.

Despite the prejudices of the materially developed world, my husband proudly proclaims: My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist, a non-Mumbaikar, or an unpatriotic Indian.


P.S.: A press conference will be held before the publication of the next post containing startling new facts on the case.

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Government of Terror

My husband, Roshan Jamal Khan, completes 2 years of incarceration in a Spanish jail after being arrested from a mosque in Barcelona on January 18, 2008. He was convicted on December 11, 2009, on the charge of associating with terrorist groups.

It’s hard for a middle-class family to survive in times of recession. But, it’s even harder if it loses the sole bread-winner. And, it’s hardest if that sole bread-winner is jailed on a false and fabricated charge. The war against terror has perpetuated terror on innocent people rather than on terrorists.

Love is blind. When you are in love, you lose your capability to think logically. You lose your mind and your heart takes precedent over it causing you to become emotional. The same effect takes place when you are blinded by hatred. Your heart takes precedent over your mind making it lose its capability to think logically. But, the eventual effects are different. Love spreads happiness, while hatred spreads sorrow. But, as love became obscene, the engulfing of the world by hatred was inevitable.

Governments, with all resources at its disposal, can easily create situations beneficial to their scheme of things. They can engineer riots in election year to polarize voters on communal basis. They can also sensationalize terror threats to divert the minds of people from their deficiencies in governance and as such not lose elections. To achieve this purpose, they can easily frame innocents. And, this is what has happened with my husband.

Spain was going to election in March 2008. The ruling party, sensing its defeat due to the anti-incumbency mood of the electorate, raised the specter of terror attacks on its beautiful city of Barcelona. It achieved its purpose of winning the elections by flaunting the arrest of my husband as its efficiency in safeguarding the lives of Spaniards. Great governance! Rah-rah matador!

Howsoever mighty the Goliaths of governments maybe, with the meagre resources at our disposal, we shall, Insha Allah, demolish it by exposing the fabricated video evidence used to implicate my husband. Empires built on the ruins of people’s lives will surely rot and crumble one day. I pray to Allah for the early release of my husband and invoke his ire on the tormentors of Muslims.

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Paranoid Decision

Roshan Jamal Khan, after spending 22 months in a Spanish prison, has been sentenced for 8 and half years for praying in a mosque located in the Raval neighborhood of Barcelona, Spain.

Roshan Jamal Khan has no criminal past. After his arrest in Spain, the top, two investigative agencies of the Government of India, viz. Central Bureau of Investigation & Anti-Terrorism Squad (Maharashtra), investigated his credentials right from his college days till his travel to Spain. When these agencies did not find anything incriminatory against him, the Government of India cleared his name. ( Indian Express )

Roshan Jamal Khan was arrested from the Tariq bin Ziyad mosque on January 18, 2008. He was convicted on the charge of associating with terrorist groups on December 11, 2009. A copy of the court order in Spanish & English is provided for all to read while the rebuttal of the decisive factors leading to the conviction of Roshan follows :

• The word of just one witness (F-1) has been held as gospel truth against that of 11 others to send Roshan Jamal Khan to prison.
  


• No incriminating material was found on his person or at his residence in Spain.
  


• Roshan wasn’t under any surveillance. His movements were not suspicious nor were they tracked before he was arrested.
  


• His phone was not tapped nor are there any records of his conversations, either telephonic or otherwise, with the terrorist group that he has been associated with.
  


• The miniscule amount of pyrotechnic, explosive materials allegedly thrown in a trash can by another accused does not contain the fingerprints & genetic traces of the person accused of throwing it nor of Roshan Jamal Khan.
  


• The sole witness, F-1, had arrived from France just 2 days before the raid.
  


• The explosive materials were made in France.
  


• The fingerprints on the explosive materials were not compared with those of F-1.
  


• The miniscule amount of pyrotechnic, explosive material allegedly discovered during the raid on the mosque was the only incriminating material that the prosecution could produce even after 22 months of investigations. This gives rise to the doubt of the evidence being planted by F-1 so that it could be discovered during the raid.
  


• The telephonic conversation record of F-1 to his French friend informing him of the terror plan is not provided.
  


• The process of how F-1’s friend informed the Spanish authorities about the terror plans is not detailed.
  


• The video interview available on the internet and relied upon by the learned judges to implicate Roshan Jamal Khan has been conducted by an unknown person.
  


• Studios of Hollywood, Bollywood, Tollywood or even Mollywood, i.e. the Malegaon film industry, can produce such videos.
  


• Two persons, present during the raid, were not charged because, according to F-1, they were not present when the terror plans were discussed. But, that doesn’t rule out that they were not present when the plans were discussed in his absence.
  


• No particular motive has been imputed to Roshan Jamal Khan for associating with terror groups. It seems the fact that he is a devout Muslim and follows the basic tenets of Islam has been held as enough proof to associate him with terror groups.
  


• Roshan Jamal Khan was acquitted and absolved of the charge of possession of explosive materials that was attributed to another person.
  


• Roshan was also acquitted and absolved of the charge of conspiring to indulge in terror acts along with all other accused.
  


• He was convicted only on the charge of associating with terror groups the substantiation of which can be said to be invalid and erroneous.
  

The case lacks strength and should have collapsed on its own even without any defence. The learned judges should have dismissed it as a case of paranoia due to the 2004 Madrid train bombings.

One of the major rules of jurisprudence is that a charge should be proved beyond reasonable doubt. If that cannot be done, then the benefit of doubt should be given to the accused. In Roshan Jamal Khan’s case, this wasn’t done.

Justice should not only be done but also seen to be done. In Spain, it has been subverted.

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Motive For Association

Born and brought up in a cosmopolitan area of cosmopolitan Bombay, Roshan Jamal Khan did his graduation from the prestigious St. Xavier’s College of Bombay. The area where Roshan grew up has Christians, Hindus, Muslims and Parsis in equal numbers. As such, Roshan never faced any sort of discrimination in his life.

Even during the worst ever riot of independent India in the aftermath of the destruction of Babri Mosque, when the rest of India was smoldering, this area remained peaceful. Life went on as usual thereafter, too.

Roshan was largely associated with the travel industry. He has worked for a travel agency in Mumbai and Kuwait. While working for the travel agency in Kuwait, he was given an appreciation letter by the American Embassy for his work. His younger brother has worked for the US consulate in Mumbai as a security officer.

Roshan has six children; all of whom were under 18 and still in school when he was arrested in January 2008. There is nothing that could seemingly influence him to associate with terror groups. Especially, considering his young children – 2 daughters & 4 sons – whose future no father would like to jeopardize by undertaking any illegal or criminal activity leave alone indulging in terror acts.

Roshan Jamal Khan has no criminal past. After his arrest in Spain, the top, two investigative agencies of the Government of India, viz. Central Bureau of Investigation & Anti-Terrorism Squad (Maharashtra), investigated his credentials right from his college days till his travel to Spain. When these agencies did not find anything incriminatory against him, the Government of India cleared his name (Indian Express).

The Spanish police couldn’t produce any evidence to implicate Roshan for associating with terror except for the word of an unknown, protected witness – may be imaginary. No substance was found on his person or at his residence. He wasn’t under any surveillance. His movements were not suspicious nor were they tracked before he was arrested. He was in Spain to explore trade in olives.

Staying in a 5-star hotel where terrorists are holed up cannot be held as a reason for accusing other guests of the hotel for associating with terror. Similarly, praying in a mosque, or attending a congregation in a church, along side a person of dubious dealings cannot be a rationale for associating any person with terror.

It should be noted that no crime was committed. It was only on the basis of a fantasy of a wannabe James Bond that it was surmised that a terror attack was imminent on the Barcelona Metro. Thus, the police supposedly got into the act to foil it.

So, what did the Spanish authorities – the police, the prosecution and the judiciary – impute as motives for Roshan Jamal Khan to associate with terror and thereby sentence him to 8 and a half years?

Were the Spanish authorities subjected to an overdose of the film “Minority Report”?

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Punished For Praying

Roshan Jamal Khan, after spending nearly two years in a Spanish prison, has been sentenced for 8 and a half years for praying in a mosque located in the Raval neighborhood of Barcelona, Spain ( BBC, CNN, El Pais, El Mundo ). There are no specific charges against Roshan Jamal Khan. Just the mere presence of his among unknown worshippers in the mosque has been held as enough evidence to hold him guilty of associating with terror.

The word of just one unknown witness – maybe imaginary – has been held as gospel truth to send Roshan to prison along with 10 people who were praying along side him in the mosque.

The family of Roshan Jamal Khan is shocked to know that the learned judges of the Spanish Court didn’t take the trouble to consider his background or his immediate past activities before sentencing him for associating with terror groups.

Trade with Spain has proved to be a risky venture for Roshan Jamal Khan who had gone there to explore trades in olives.

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