Second Thoughts

In my first post titled "First Thoughts", I wrote about a disturbing article concerning a Pakistani national, Saud Memon, who was arrested by the FBI, spent two years in Guantanamo Bay and then was handed over to the Pakistani Intelligence Service. As indicated, he was brought to court after the Supreme court demanded that he be presented. Once he appeared in court, the court ordered that the emaciated Memon be taken to hospital for treatment.

Articles appearing in the Pakistani Daily News and the United Kingdom's BBC state that Memonhas died in Hospital of pneumonia and meningitis. His death occured at approximately 2:30 pm on Friday the 18 May 2007.

The background to Memon is that he was a textile businessman on whose piece of land the body of executed journalist and US citizen David Pearl's body was found. He denied any knowledge of the death and fled Pakistan. There was apparently a bounty on his head to the value of about $3 million. What is interesting about this case is that if he was in fact guilty, why did the FBI not produce the evidence in court and prosecute him? Why release him to the Pakistani's who also did not prosecute him?

Many may argue that, where there is smoke there must be fire. But the simple fact remains that if there is no evidence, there is no sure way of knowing that he was guilty. A society premised on the rule of law and underpinned by a constitutional order, in order to continue to be considered to be acting legitimately cannot make life and death decisions based on emotions of revenge.

One does not expect individuals who were related to David Pearl or many others who lost their lives in terror attacks to transcend the emotional and leave their personal views aside. But this is exactly why we have governments and people who are removed to make the decisions that will impact on the world and peoples that live in it. It is why, inspite of, the allegations made against Memon, he is innocent until proven guilty. If not, then we give credibility to the people that the world is so keen to fight. Allegations fuel and are fueled by hate which is enough to justify the dehumanising of a person which makes it easy to kill them. This is not a world we want to create for our children.