Hands Off Cain
NEWS ARCHIVE·DEATH PENALTY·DECEMBER 18, 2002

THREE DEATH SENTENCES FOR INDIA PARLIAMENT RAID

December 18, 2002: an anti-terrorism court in Delhi has sentenced to death three men convicted of helping militants attack India´s parliament last year. Mohammed Afzal, a 35-year-old fruit merchant, Shaukat Hussain and Abdul Rehman Geelani, a Delhi colleg

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the three men, who were accused of helping the gunmen prepare for the raid, were calm and composed as the judge read out the sentence in a packed courtroom surrounded by armed policemen.
The fourth defendant, Navjot or Afsan Guru, wife of Hussain, who was found guilty of "withholding information" from police, received five years imprisonment.
The convictions and sentences can be appealed.
Police say Afzal and Hussain are members of the Pakistan-backed militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad, fighting in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Relations between India and Pakistan deteriorated after the attack, as they mobilised up to a million men along their common border, leading to international concern about a possible war.
Nine people were shot dead when five armed gunmen entered the grounds of parliament in Delhi in December last year. All five attackers were shot dead by police.
None of the accused took part in the attack, but prosecutors said they helped in the planning it.
A recently-enacted anti-terrorism law views any aid to "terrorists" carrying out an attack as "terrorism".
The accused collected explosives and committed murder, having "hatched a criminal conspiracy like war against India", Justice SN Dhingra announced in the court on Monday.
"They had intentions to capture parliament and to kill the prime minister and home minister... they attacked parliament house armed with weapons rifles, grenades and one body bomb," the judge said.
"If asking for the liberation of Kashmir is terrorism then I am a terrorist," the AFP news agency quoted Hussain as saying as he was being led out of the courtroom.
India blames Pakistan for backing Kashmiri militant attacks on India - a charge that Islamabad has denied. In recent months the tension has eased as both sides have pulled back their forces.
SOURCES
  • Sources: BBC website, Reuters, 18/12/2002