Secure Saudi court's order in Mangaluru man's conviction, HC tells Union govt, flags slow response
Bengaluru, Aug 8: The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday directed the Union government to secure a copy of the judgment by a Saudi Arabian court convicting Indian national Shailesh Kumar.
Justice Krishna S Dixit, who is hearing a petition by Kumar's wife alleging that the local police's delay in investigation led to her husband's conviction in a foreign court, said that securing the judgment copy will be helpful in submitting a clemency petition.
Upset with the slow response to its earlier directions, the HC said, "When a citizen of this country is suffering abroad, the authorities have to show due seriousness and secure justice for him."
Shahilesh, who hails from Mangaluru, has been convicted and imprisoned in Saudi Arabia, where he was working, for alleged derogatory posts against the King of Saudi Arabia and Islam.
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His wife Kavitha has petitioned the high court, claiming that the posts dated February 12 and 13, 2020 were made from a fake profile on Facebook and the local police had failed to provide the proof to Saudi Arabian authorities.
The local police had blamed Facebook for not cooperating with the investigation.
On Tuesday, Justice Krishna S Dixit ordered the Union government "to secure a copy of the conviction, and order confirming the conviction order at the earliest and place the same on record before this proceeding."
The court also directed that the details of procedure followed to file a clemency petition before the King of Saudi Arabia be placed before the court.
Shailesh had put up a post in support of the Indian Government's Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizenship (NRC). He allegedly received a threat call and deleted his account.
Subsequently, a derogatory post against the Saudi king and Islam was uploaded. He was arrested in Saudi Arabia, tried and sentenced to 15 years in jail.
His wife filed a police complaint in India alleging that her husband had informed her that a fake Facebook account was used to upload the post in his name. He was arrested and jailed on February 23, 2020 and has been in prison ever since.
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US VP JD Vance says Lebanon not part of ceasefire, calls it ‘misunderstanding’
Budapest/Washington: US Vice President J D Vance has said that Lebanon was never included in the ceasefire understanding with Iran, describing the confusion as a “legitimate misunderstanding”.
Speaking to reporters before departing from Hungary, Vance said, “I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon and it just didn’t. We never made that promise.”
He stressed that the United States had not included Lebanon in the scope of the ceasefire at any stage.
His remarks come amid continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon, where more than 200 people were reported killed, even as ceasefire talks between Iran and the US move forward.
Vance said Israel had “offered … to check themselves a little bit in Lebanon because they want to make sure that our negotiation is successful”.
He warned that if Iran allows the situation in Lebanon to affect the negotiations, it could derail the talks.
“If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart in a conflict where they were getting hammered over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them and which the United States never once said was part of the ceasefire, that’s ultimately their choice,” he said.
