India’s Supreme Court says the Gujarat government is on "thin ice" for granting remission, or early release, to 11 men convicted of gang raping a Muslim woman and killing her family during sectarian riots in 2002.
Bilkis Bano was sexually attacked and 14 of her family members were killed by a Hindu mob in western Gujarat state in March 2002.
The top court is hearing a batch of petitions against the decision by the Gujarat government to grant remission to the 11 convicts by India’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government on Independence Day last year, after one of them pleaded for early release after 15 years in prison.
The men were serving life sentences for mass murder and violent sexual assault during communal riots in Gujarat.
A two-bench judge on Thursday asked the state government to explain the reasons for the early release of the convicted men.
"The convicts' death penalty was commuted to life imprisonment. How could they be released after serving 14 years in such a situation? Why are other prisoners not given the relief of release? Why were these culprits selectively given the benefit of the policy in this case?" Justice BV Nagarathna asked the Gujarat government.
The top court has further asked the government to provide them with data on granting remission to other prisoners.
"How far is this rule – giving a chance to hardened criminals to reform by releasing them after 14 years – being applied to other prisoners? Why is the policy being applied selectively? Opportunity to reform and reintegrate should be given to all. How far is this being implemented? Why are our prisons overflowing? Give us data," the court said.
Ms Bano was 21 and five months pregnant when the men raped her and several female family members before killing 14 of them when they tried to flee marauding Hindu mobs.
The attackers had presumed her to be dead after the assault, but Ms Bano and two other children survived the attack. Seven bodies were never found.
The dead included her mother, pregnant sister-in-law, a day-old niece and her toddler daughter Saleha, who was bludgeoned to death with a rock.
Viral images and videos showed the convicts being celebrated with sweets and garlands by relatives and extremist Hindu groups coincided with India’s Independence Day celebrations. The scenes triggered national and international outrage amid demands for their release be revoked.
The legal plea has been filed by Suhashini Ali, a communist politician, journalist Revati Laul and Prof Roop Rekha Verma.
A separate public interest litigation was also filed by opposition parliamentarian Mahua Moitra against the releases, arguing that the move has caused “legitimate apprehensions regarding the safety of her and her family members”.
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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China
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UAE
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French business
France has organised a delegation of leading businesses to travel to Syria. The group was led by French shipping giant CMA CGM, which struck a 30-year contract in May with the Syrian government to develop and run Latakia port. Also present were water and waste management company Suez, defence multinational Thales, and Ellipse Group, which is currently looking into rehabilitating Syrian hospitals.
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Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
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Pietro Bartolo and Lidia Tilotta
Quercus
Hotel Silence
Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir
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Sinopharm vaccine explained
The Sinopharm vaccine was created using techniques that have been around for decades.
“This is an inactivated vaccine. Simply what it means is that the virus is taken, cultured and inactivated," said Dr Nawal Al Kaabi, chair of the UAE's National Covid-19 Clinical Management Committee.
"What is left is a skeleton of the virus so it looks like a virus, but it is not live."
This is then injected into the body.
"The body will recognise it and form antibodies but because it is inactive, we will need more than one dose. The body will not develop immunity with one dose," she said.
"You have to be exposed more than one time to what we call the antigen."
The vaccine should offer protection for at least months, but no one knows how long beyond that.
Dr Al Kaabi said early vaccine volunteers in China were given shots last spring and still have antibodies today.
“Since it is inactivated, it will not last forever," she said.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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The five pillars of Islam
Tonight's Chat on The National
Tonight's Chat is a series of online conversations on The National. The series features a diverse range of celebrities, politicians and business leaders from around the Arab world.
Tonight’s Chat host Ricardo Karam is a renowned author and broadcaster who has previously interviewed Bill Gates, Carlos Ghosn, Andre Agassi and the late Zaha Hadid, among others.
Intellectually curious and thought-provoking, Tonight’s Chat moves the conversation forward.
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Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
