---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: manisha sethi <[email protected]> Date: Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 6:02 PM Subject: [ANN:2715] Remembering Shahid Azmi: Memorial Meeting at Jamia To:
Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association Invites you to a memorial meeting Remembering Shahid Azmi: A fearless crusader for justice Speakers: Ajit Sahi (Executive Editor, Tehelka), Vrinda Grover (Senior Lawyer), Prashant Bhushan (Senior Lawyer), Collin Gonsalves (Senior Lawyer) and others… Committe Room, Centre for West Asian Studies, Opposite Academy of Third World Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, 22nd February (Monday) 3 pm onwards Advocate Shahid Azmi, defence counsel of Fahim Ansari, those accused in Malegaon blast of 2006 and Mumbai train blasts, was murdered in cold blood on February 11, 2010. Shahid Azmi’s murder follows a series of attacks on lawyers who dared to defend those accused of terror. Such lawyers, across the country from Uttar Pradesh to Madhya Pradesh to Maharshtra have been the targets of brutal attacks by right wing goons, often within the premises of the courts while the police watched idly. Azmi had received death threats as early as 2006 and had approached the Mumbai police, which failed to provide him any security. The MNS chief Raj Thackeray had also issued threats to lawyers who wanted to defend the accused in the 7/11 2006 local train blasts in Mumbai. Shahid Azmi was arrested by Delhi police for being a member of SIMI in 1995. In appeal, Shahid was acquitted by the Supreme Court. He graduated while serving his sentence, completing his law course after his release. He began practicing law in Mumbai upon his release from Tihar and took up many criminal cases and raised important legal issues before the Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court. The bulk of his legal practice comprised taking up cases of innocent Muslims who were harassed, arrested and tortured by the police. He had pleaded in court against the application of MOCOCA as well as POTA for his clients and his successful pleading in the Ghatkopar blasts case of 2002 led to the abrogation of POTA. He played a crucial role in securing justice for Ishrat Jehan, who was eliminated in a fake encounter in Gujarat. In a recent legal victory for rights of the terror accused, Shahid had exposed the violence unleashed by the Arthur Road jail authorities who were torturing the under-trials into confessing their role in bombings. In his brief life of 32 years, Azmi made a lasting difference, but his untimely and violent death foreclosed rich possibilities that lay before him and, indeed for all of us interested in justice. See also: http://www.tehelka.com/story_main42.asp?filename=Ne050909walls_not.asp http://www.countercurrents.org/khan140210.htm sd/ Manisha Sethi (9811625577), Adil Mehdi (9990923027), Ahmed Sohaib (9899462042), Ghazi Shahnawaz (9868221506), Tanweer Fazal, Arshad Alam, Farah Farooqi, Azra Razak, Anwar Alam, Sanghamitra Mitra, Ambarien al-qadar, Shakeb ,Haris ul Haq www.teacherssolidarity.org -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ACTIVISM NEWS NETWORK" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/activism-news-network?hl=en. -- You cannot build anything on the foundations of caste. You cannot build up a nation, you cannot build up a morality. Anything that you will build on the foundations of caste will crack and will never be a whole. -AMBEDKAR http://venukm.blogspot.com http://www.shelfari.com/kmvenuannur http://kmvenuannur.livejournal.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB.
