"We condemn the execution in the strongest possible terms," said Shashikumar Velath, programmes director of Amnesty's India wing.PHOTO: amnesty.org
Mohammed Afzal Guru's execution also suggested a "disturbing" trend towards the resumption of death penalty use in India, said the global human rights group.
"We condemn the execution in the strongest possible terms," said Shashikumar Velath, programmes director of Amnesty's India wing.
Guru, convicted of conspiracy to attack the parliament, waging war against India and murder, was hanged at New Delhi's Tihar Jail early on Saturday after President Pranab Mukherjee rejected a mercy appeal.
India says the death penalty is reserved for the "rarest of rare" cases, and the execution came after the government hanged the sole surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai attacks, Pakistan-born Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, in November last year.
The executions have ended an undeclared eight-year moratorium on use of the death penalty.
New York-based Human Rights Watch earlier described Guru's execution as an "inhumane punishment".
Guru, 43, was arrested after five gunmen stormed parliament in New Delhi on December 13, 2001, killing nine people before security forces shot them dead. A journalist who was wounded died months later.
There were "serious questions" about the fairness of Guru's trial as he did not receive legal representation of his choice or a lawyer with adequate experience, said Velath.
Guru was tried by a special court set up under India's Prevention of Terrorism Act, "a law which fell considerably short of international fair trial standards", he added.
The Indian law was repealed in 2004 after allegations of its widespread abuse.
Amnesty said it was still unclear whether Guru was given an opportunity to seek a judicial review of the decision to reject his mercy petition -- a practice that has been followed in other Indian cases.
The rights group also noted Guru's family in Kashmir said they were not informed of his imminent execution, in violation of international standards on the use of the death penalty.
The body was also not returned to the family for last rites and burial, in violation of international standards, the group added.
COMMENTS (17)
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@Parvez: If you can find any article from Ms. Roy speaking up for victims of terrorist, that would be great. She is lucky she is born in India. Even someone like Ted Turner could not get away with praise for 9/11 terrorists. Yet Arundhati routinely speaks up for people who kill ordinary Indian civilians with no negative consequences other than being unpopular within the country.
Arundhati Roy's write up in the daily 'Dawn' of today on this subject is a bit of an eye opener.
Amnesty International did not raise the most important issue, i.e. death sentence has been awarded based on circumstantial evidence. This is scary. The other alleged human rights violations are not that important or serious.
The sum total of any nation's 'collective intellect' computes to a big zero. And that is the reason why modern nation states have to work not by its 'collective conscience', which is a product of this 'collective intellect', but by the principles of law that is dispassionate, unbiased and rational. Afzal Guru himself wanted his speedy execution as he found solitary confinement to be far more intolerable. Whether we like it or not, by this execution the Indian state has given him eternal relief eventhough that was not its intention. A strange irony indeed..
hahahahahahahahah....Amnesty is a joke....we thank Amnesty for taking the pain to condemn....hahahahahahaha
Blasphemy law was promulgated in 1979 and since then how many have been executed/convicted under this law. You Indians are hate mongers and nothing else, I have come to conclusion now. You are totally blind to see growing Hindu extremism in your own rank and file, and on the hand you have four eyes to see a pin accidentally dropping on a Hindu or a minority in Pakistan. This is nothing but your growing 'illiteracy'.Thank God, I am not an Indian, a blind Indian. If Arundhati Roys exposes government's cruelty on Kashmiris, gang rapes by Indian officers, no legal proceedings allowed to Kashmiri Muslim prisoners, You guys call her a Pakistani agent. If Amnesty exposes any such thing in Pakistan, you people leave heaps of comments against Pakistan as if all the Pakistanis were involved in that particular crime, but when same Amnesty condemns an execution that too of a person not given due right of self defence by any advocate of his choice and that too on conditions of only suspicions, you start crying to ban it, how hypocrites you have been. Learn how to love instead of spreading hate. Don't be hate mongers.
amnesty international condemns every killing by the state. They are against capital punishment. They did not condemn it because fair trail was not given or the accused was innocent.
Death penalty is not humane, nor is the murder of humans. This was an exceptional case. However, the systems should be refined so as not to give a ten year prison sentence followed by death. That is two sentences. On the other hand Afzal Guru had extra ten years in which to ponder over what he had done. May be, just may be, there is something to learn from this episode.
Give me a break!!!!! He was hanged a decade after capture......Before the excessive cholesterol from his mutton biriyani could kill him....
Strangely,how come Amnesty never raised anything about the one-sided trials in Saudi Arabia which results in instant beheading????
The amnesty international loses its credibility by supporting causes which are indefensible and unethical. By taking up causes of terrorists, the legitimate cry of AI against human rights violations across the world are diluted.
I am yet to see a report from all these so called HR groups speaking against the insurmountable misery and pain the terrorists afflict upon the millions of citizens who abide by the civilized rules of the land.
India needs a hr org to counter western imperialistic human rights agencies.
“We condemn the execution in the strongest possible terms,” said Shashikumar Velath, programmes director of Amnesty’s India wing"
Lets see if any of their Pakistani representative has courage to condemn in the strongest possible terms - the Blasphemy Laws and punishing innocents through this law !!!
Amenesty International always believes that terrorists have human rights and not the victims
Heheeh!
Amnesty International is like glue.
On a soft surface it sticks and sticks and sticks and sticks.
On a hard surface it falls apart right then and there.
we condemn amnesty for condemning............ matter over :)