‘No material to link with Al-Qaeda’: HC grants bail to Maulana who was in jail for over a year under UAPA

News Network
November 17, 2020

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The Jharkhand High Court has granted bail to a Maulana as he was charged under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act [UAPA]. The police made out a case that the co-accused met at the house of the Maulana, the petitioner and he received money from Gujarat for committing anti-national work, being a “jihadi”. And thus, arrested him on September 9, 2019 and he has since been in custody.

Maulana Kalimuddin Muzahiri was arrested and charged under sections 121 [Waging, or attempting to wage war against the state], 121(A) [Conspiracy to commit offences punishable by section 121], 124(A) [sedition], 120-B [criminal conspiracy], 34 [Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention] of the Indian penal Code (IPC) read with Sections 25(1-B)a [in possession of firearms], 26 [secret contraventions], 35 [Criminal responsibility of persons in occupation of premises in certain cases] of Arms Act, Sections 16 [terrorist act], 17 [Punishment for raising funds for terrorist act], 18 [Punishment for conspiracy], 18-B [Punishment for recruiting of any person or persons for terrorist act], 19 [Punishment for harbouring], 20 [Punishment for being member of terrorist gang or organisation], 21 [Punishment for holding proceeds of terrorism], 23 [enhanced penalties] of U.P.A. Act and Section 17 of C.L.A. Act.

The counsel for the petitioner argued that during the investigation police did not follow through the investigation about the money sent to the petitioner or about any anti-national work being carried out by the petitioner.

The single judge bench of Justice Kailash Prasad Deo accepted the counsel’s contention and agreed that no material has been collected with regard to involvement of the petitioner in any activities of Al-Qaeda outfit, nor Investigating Officer has collected any material with regard to the money given to this petitioner by any Organization, who was involved in unlawful activities.

The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) is a national security legislation that gives unbridled powers to the government authorities to detain an individual based on vague and arbitrary grounds such as “in the interest of national security”. After invoking multiple stringent charges against the Maulana, the police were ultimately unable to submit any proof to establish the severe and grave allegations made against the petitioner who had to stay on in prison for about 14 months due to some misguided investigation or merely prejudiced biases of the investigating personnel. One cannot even fathom how many such weak cases of UAPA are waiting to be unravelled before some court of law where the court finds that there was, in fact, no case made out against the accused during the investigation. While the law enforcement agencies wash their hands of such cases after the bail is made, the personal and social life of the accused person effectively stands to be ruined. The law enforcement agencies are not required to establish a substantial case against anybody before deeming them to be involved in terrorist activity which effectively has made the law to be a tool of intimidation against the weaker sections of the society.

The Sessions court in Delhi has had a pattern of denying bails to persons allegedly involved in the north-east Delhi riots of February 2020 basis the accused persons’ act of blocking the road. Individuals like Safoora Zargar, Devangana Kalita, Asif lqbal Tanha were denied bail by the same court in Delhi pertaining to the Delhi riots case for the exact same reason. In an analysis piece done by SabrangIndia it was found that bails under UAPA were granted on basis of logic and of a reasoned and sound order, with basis on rule of law and precedents set out by the Supreme Court. So, most commonly, an order granting bail under UAPA is found to be more reasoned and based on rule of law than orders of denial of bail which seem mechanical in approach and rely solely on prosecution’s version and witness statements in the case.

During the monsoon session of the Parliament, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) was forced to reveal data related to UAPA cases as questions were put forth during the session. The MHA presented data from National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 2018 report “Crimes in India”. As per NCRB’s 2018 report, between 2016-18 a total of 3,974 persons were arrested under UAPA and 3,005 cases were registered. Out of these, only 821 chargesheets were filed in three years, i.e. 2016-18.

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News Network
November 18,2024

Advisors to US President-elect Donald Trump have instructed his allies and associates to refrain from using the inflammatory language they previously employed when discussing issues related to migrants and the deportation of asylum seekers, in a bid to avoid “looking like Nazis.”

US media reports said that Trump’s associates had been asked to stop using the word “camps” to describe potential facilities that would be used to accommodate migrants rounded up in deportation operations across the country.

The reports said the US president-elect’s allies had been ordered to stave off such charged terms as they would bring to mind “Nazis,” and be used against Trump.

“I have received some guidance to avoid terms, like ‘camps,’ that can be twisted and used against the president, yes,” one Trump ally told American monthly magazine Rolling Stone.

“Apparently, some people think it makes us look like Nazis.”

The presidential advisers also cautioned surrogates and allies to keep racist terms, which have dogged Trump’s campaign, out of their remarks.

They said with Trump’s heated rhetoric that used to compare undocumented immigrants to “animals” and his slight that they are “poisoning the blood of our country,” detractors did not need to reach too far to find parallels to Nazi Germany.

Stephen Miller, who Trump tapped to be his deputy chief of staff of policy, specifically used the word “camps” to describe holding facilities that he hoped the military could put together for immigrants.

Tom Homan, who served as the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is chosen by Trump to be in charge of the US borders, was no stranger to such language.

“It’s not gonna be a mass sweep of neighborhoods,” he said in an interview earlier this week. “It’s not gonna be building concentration camps. I’ve read it all. It’s ridiculous.”

Becoming a little more forthright about the new government’s aggressive deportation plans, Homan likened the early days of the Trump administration to the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003.

“I got three words for them – shock and awe,” he said. “You’re going to see us take this country back.”

Trump made immigration a central element of his 2024 presidential campaign but unlike his first run, which was mainly focused on building a border wall, he has shifted his attention to interior enforcement and the removal of undocumented immigrants already in the United States.

People close to the US president and his aides are laying the groundwork for expanding detention facilities to fulfill his mass deportation campaign promise.

The businessman-turned-politician deported more than 1.5 million people during his first term.

The figure do not include the millions of people turned away at the border under a Covid-era policy enacted by Trump and used during most of Biden’s term.

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News Network
November 14,2024

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The UN special rapporteur for Palestine has slammed Israel’s parliament for passing a law authorizing the detention of Palestinian children, who are “tormented often beyond the breaking point” in Israeli custody.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, in a Thursday post on X, characterized the experiences of Palestinian minors in Israeli detention as extreme and often inhumane.

The UN expert highlighted the grave impact of this policy, noting that up to 700 Palestinian minors are taken into custody each year, a practice she described as part of an unlawful occupation that views these children as potential threats.

Albanese said Palestinian minors in Israeli custody are “tormented often beyond the breaking point” and that “generations of Palestinians will carry the scars and trauma from the Israeli mass incarceration system.”

She further criticized the international community for its inaction, suggesting that ongoing diplomatic efforts, which often rely on the idea of resuming negotiations for peace, have contributed to normalizing such human rights violations against Palestinian children and the broader population.

The comments by Albanese came in response to Israel’s parliament (Knesset) passing a law on November 7 that authorizes the detention of Palestinian children under the age of 14 for “terrorism or terrorist activities.”

Under the legislation, a temporary five-year measure, once the individuals turn 14, they will be transferred to adult prison to continue serving their sentences.

Additionally, the law allows for a three-year clause that enables courts to incarcerate minors in adult prisons for up to 10 days if they are considered dangerous. Courts have the authority to extend this duration if necessary, according to the Knesset.

The legislation underscores a shift in the treatment of minors and raises alarms among human rights advocates regarding the legal and ethical ramifications of detaining children and the conditions under which they may be held.

Thousands of Palestinians, including hundreds of children and women, are currently in Israeli jails—around one-third without charge or trial. Also, an unknown number are arbitrarily held following a wave of arrests in the wake of the regime's genocidal war on Gaza.

Since the onset of the Gaza war, the Israeli regime, under the supervision of extremist minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, has turned prisons and detention centers into “death chambers,” the ministry of detainees and ex-detainees’ affairs in Gaza says.

Violence, extreme hunger, humiliation, and other forms of abuse of Palestinian prisoners have been normalized across Israel’s jail system, reports indicate.

Over 270 Palestinian minors are being detained by Israeli authorities, in violation of UN resolutions and international treaties that forbid the incarceration of children, as reported by Palestinian rights organizations.

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News Network
November 26,2024

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The extremist Israeli finance minister has called for the occupation of the Gaza Strip and halving the population of the Palestinian territory that is reeling from almost 14 months of genocide.  

Bezalel Smotrich, who has a history of racist statements against Palestinians, made the controversial remarks during a conference of the Yesha Council settler group on Monday.

“We can occupy Gaza and thin the population by half within two years,” through encouraging the so-called “voluntary emigration," he said.

The racist minister also urged the Tel Aviv regime to use its favorable ties with the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump to implement the plan.

“Occupying Gaza is not a dirty word,” he further claimed.

Once the success of the “voluntary emigration" is proven in the besieged Gaza Strip, it can be replicated in the occupied West Bank, he added.

Last month, Smotrich urged the full annexation of the West Bank and Gaza, asserting that Israel should unequivocally declare there would be no Palestinian state.

Israel launched its brutal Gaza onslaught on October 7, 2023, after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group carried out a historic operation against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

However, nearly 14 months into the offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has failed to achieve its declared objectives of finding captives held in Gaza and eliminating Hamas.

So far, the occupying regime has killed at least 44,235 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 104,638 others, in Gaza. 

It has been committing the war crimes of starvation and of intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population in the besieged territory.

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