Gang-raped Muslim woman 'numb' after India frees convicts

"The release of these convicts has taken from me my peace and shaken my faith in justice," says Bilkis Bano of 11 Hindu men convicted of 2002 crime and released by BJP-ruled western Gujarat state.

Bilkis Bano and two of her children were the only survivors among a group of 17 Muslims attacked by a Hindu mob in western state of Gujarat in 2002. (Reuters Archive)

A Muslim woman who was gang-raped as 14 other people were murdered during one of post-independence India's worst religious riots has said she is "numb" after her attackers were released early from prison.

Bilkis Bano said in a statement released by her lawyer on Wednesday that she was "bereft of words. I am still numb." "I trusted the highest courts in our land. I trusted the system, and I was learning slowly to live with my trauma.

"The release of these convicts has taken from me my peace and shaken my faith in justice. My sorrow and my wavering faith are not for myself alone but for every woman who is struggling for justice in courts," she said.

On Thursday around a dozen people staged a demonstration in New Delhi against the release of the men.

Bilkis and two of her children were the only survivors among a group of 17 Muslims attacked by a Hindu mob in the western state of Gujarat in 2002.

Bilkis was pregnant at the time and seven of those killed were relatives including her three-year-old daughter. The attack took place when current Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was Gujarat state premier.

Eleven Hindu men were later sentenced to life in prison but were freed on Monday, with the Gujarat government timing its announcement to coincide with celebrations for the 75th anniversary of India's independence.

The attackers, released following a recommendation by a state government panel, were greeted by relatives outside the prison who gave them sweets and touched their feet in a traditional Indian sign of respect.

READ MORE: Rights groups decry release of convicts in gang rape, murder case in India

These 11 who are being welcomed with sweets were sentenced for life by the court but released by the govt for gang-raping a pregnant muslim woman, Bilkis Bano during 2002 Gujarat riot. They had also killed her 7 family members, including her 3yr daughter. pic.twitter.com/UqzTed5bbO

— Ashok Swain (@ashoswai) August 16, 2022

Ruling BJP defends release of convicts 

On Thursday, opposition politician Rahul Gandhi, grandson of former premier Indira Gandhi, tweeted: "Prime Minister... the entire country is seeing the difference between your words and deeds."

Modi was accused of turning a blind eye to the riots but was cleared of any wrongdoing in 2012, two years before becoming leader of the Hindu-majority nation that is home to 200 million Muslims.

"BJP's bias for a religion is such that even brutal rape & hate crimes are forgivable," prominent Muslim politician Asaduddin Owaisi said, referring to Modi's ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.

READ MORE: Hindu nationalism will ultimately harm all of India

“They are Brahmins, Men of Good Sanskaar. Their conduct in jail was good": BJP MLA #CKRaulji

BJP now terms rapists as ‘Men of Good Sanskar’. This is the lowest a party can ever stoop! 🙏 @KTRTRS @pbhushan1 pic.twitter.com/iuOZ9JTbhh

— YSR (@ysathishreddy) August 18, 2022

The Gujarat state government, run by the BJP, defended the decision to release the men.

"The remission of the 11 convicts was considered after taking various factors like life imprisonment term in India which is typically of 14 years or more, age, behaviour of the person and so on," senior official Raj Kumar was quoted by the Hindustan Times as saying.

According to the official toll, around 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were hacked, beaten, shot or burnt to death in the riots, which erupted after 59 Hindu pilgrims died in a train fire that was blamed on a Muslim mob.

More than three dozen Muslims were later convicted over the fire, although the cause remains disputed. 

READ MORE: The role of the West in the plight of India’s Muslims

Source: AFP

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US convicts three men in hate crime killing of Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery

Federal court sentenced father and son McMichaels to life in prison while William Bryan, who recorded the killing, got 35 years in prison.

Three white men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery in a Georgia neighborhood faced a second round of criminal penalties Monday, Aug. 8, 2022, for federal hate crimes committed in the deadly pursuit of the 25-year-old Black man. (AP)

The white father and son convicted of murder in Ahmaud Arbery’s fatal shooting after they chased the 25-year-old Black man through a Georgia neighborhood were sentenced Monday to life in prison for committing a federal hate crime.

US District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood handed down the sentences against Travis McMichael, 36, and his father, Greg McMichael, 66, reiterating the gravity of the February 2020 killing that shattered their Brunswick community. William “Roddie” Bryan, 52, who recorded cellphone video of the slaying, was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

“A young man is dead. Ahmaud Arbery will be forever 25. And what happened, a jury found, happened because he’s Black,” Wood said.

The sentences imposed Monday brought an end to more than two years of criminal proceedings against the men responsible for Arbery’s slaying, which along with the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor in Kentucky fueled a wave of protests across the country against the killings of unarmed Black people.

The McMichaels were previously sentenced to life without parole in state court for Arbery’s murder and had asked the judge to divert them to a federal prison to serve their sentences, saying they were worried about their safety in the state prison system.

Bryan had sought to serve his federal sentence first. Wood declined all three requests.

In February, a federal jury convicted the McMichaels and Bryan of violating Arbery’s civil rights, concluding they targeted him because of his race. All three were also found guilty of attempted kidnapping, and the McMichaels were convicted of using guns in the commission of a violent crime.

The McMichaels armed themselves with guns and used a pickup truck to chase Arbery after he ran past their home on Feb. 23, 2020. Bryan, a neighbor, joined the pursuit in his own truck and recorded cellphone video of Travis McMichael shooting Arbery with a shotgun. The McMichaels told police they suspected Arbery was a burglar, but investigators determined he was unarmed and had committed no crimes.

“I’m very thankful,” Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, told reporters outside the courthouse after all three sentences had been imposed. “It’s been a long fight. I’m so thankful God gave us the strength to continue to fight.”

In court, Greg McMichael addressed the Arbery family, saying their loss was “beyond description.”

“I’m sure my words mean very little to you, but I want to assure you I never wanted any of this to happen," he said. “There was no malice in my heart or my son’s heart that day.”

Bryan said he was sorry for what happened to Arbery.

“I never intended any harm to him, and I never would have played any role in what happened if I knew then what I know now," he said.

In giving Bryan a lower sentence, Wood noted he had not brought a gun to the pursuit of Arbery and preserved his cell phone video, which was crucial to the prosecutions.

Travis McMichael declined to address the court, but his attorney, Amy Lee Copeland, said a lighter sentence would be more consistent with what similarly charged defendants have received in other cases, noting that the officer who killed Floyd in Minneapolis, Derek Chauvin, got 21 years in prison for violating Floyd’s civil rights, though he was not charged with targeting Floyd because of his race.

Greg McMichael's attorney, A.J. Balbo, also cited the Chauvin sentence as well as his client's age and health problems, which he said include a stroke and depression.

During the February hate crimes trial, prosecutors fortified their case that Arbery’s killing was motivated by racism by showing the jury roughly two dozen text messages and social media posts in which Travis McMichael and Bryan used racist slurs and made disparaging comments about Black people.

“The evidence we presented at trial proved ... what so many people felt in their hearts when they watched the video of Ahmaud’s tragic and unnecessary death: This would have never happened if he had been white,” Christopher Perras, another prosecutor, said Monday.

A state Superior Court judge imposed life sentences for the McMichaels and Bryan in January for Arbery's murder, with both McMichaels denied any chance of parole. All three defendants have remained jailed in coastal Glynn County, in the custody of U.S. marshals, while awaiting sentencing after their federal convictions.

Because they were first charged and convicted of murder in a state court, protocol would have them turned them over to the Georgia Department of Corrections to serve their life terms in a state prison.

Copeland said during Monday's hearing for Travis McMichael that her client has received hundreds of threats that he will be killed as soon as he arrives at state prison and that his photo has been circulated there on illegal phones.

“I am concerned your honor that my client effectively faces a back door death penalty," she said, adding that “retribution and revenge” were not sentencing factors, even for a defendant who is “publicly reviled.”

Arbery’s father, Marcus Arbery Sr., said Travis McMichael had shown his son no mercy and deserved to “rot" in state prison.

“You killed him because he was a Black man and you hate Black people," he said.

“You deserve no mercy.”

Source: AP

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