Saturday, September 24, 2016

One-line decision in Pakistani capital cases

One fact particularly jumps out in this story about the latest capital case challenges in Pakistan: the Army Court of Appeals is said to have disposed of the cases in a one-line decision. Excerpt:
They contended the judgment passed by the FGCM [Field General Court-Martial] was challenged before a Military Court of Appeals that through single lined Judgment rejected their appeals on July 25, 2016. 
During proceedings of appeals, the petitioners were not provided with the copies of FGCM proceedings.
The petitioners contended that they were innocent and had been made scapegoats to save the real culprits involved in different cases. 
They argued that from the sequence of events right from their arrest till rejection of appeals, it appeared that the petitioners had been awarded death penalty already determined by the elements at the helms of affairs. 
The sentence is not sustainable in the eye of law. 
The petitioners further contended that throughout the court proceedings, their lawyer provided them for defense was a mere spectator. 
All witnesses had changed and fine-tuned their statements recorded previously.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments are subject to moderation and must be submitted under your real name. Anonymous comments will not be posted (even though the form seems to permit them).