HRF to appeal to Prez to commute Afzal's sentence

Hyderabad, Sep 28: The Human Rights Forum (HRF), send an appeal to President A P J Abdul Kalam, seeking him to exercise power of clemency under Article 72 of the Constitution to commute the death sentence of Mohammed Afzal, convicted in the December 13, 2001 Parliament attack case, to life imprisonment.

In a statement here, HRF vice-president S Jeevan Kumar and General Secretary K Balagopal said they would collect signatures from people , who were ready to support their plea.

They said nearly 118 countries had abolished the death penalty in law or in practice. India, a country which prides itself on its ancient civilisation, should also abolish the capital punishment.

In the Parliament attack case, all those who had actually participated in the attack, were killed in the shootout and those who were later tried, including Afzal, were only abettors, they claimed.

UNI