British Justice System Favours the Criminals, Not Victims

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An armed robbery occurs in February 2004 near London Heathrow. Robbers get away with £1.75 million. Police arrests four people afterwards and put them on trial. They get conditional bail and roam free in the society, even though they are considered danger to public. Three trials break down one after the other. Last trial breaks because jury is interfered with. With fear of future threats to jury members, judge orders a trial without jury; the first jury-less trail in 400 years. During this fourth trial, one accuser runs away from the court. Next day court continues the trial without even considering of removing bail of the rest three and arresting them.

Six years have passed; no one has been brought to justice. No money has been recovered yet, and a further £20 million have been spent on the trials from the public funds to recover (or not to recover) mere £1.75 million!

Where did this huge amount of £20 million go? Most of this amount went into the pockets of the lawyers. The lawyers in UK charge huge fees which is so high that it is simply out of the reach of majority of the public. The whole legal system is far too complex, lengthy and expensive. God forbid if an innocent person gets involved in any kind of legal concern, his life gets ruined due to this restrictive justice system no matter he is innocent and gets quitted in the end. Criminals do enjoy it because complexity & longer times for justice favour them, and the legal fees they don’t need to pay; it comes from your packet i.e. the tax payer!

Little while ago, a career criminal with an impressive record of 50 previous convictions including firearms possession & robberies, enters a house along with two accomplices having 12 inch long knives in their hands. They tie the hands of all family members and start damaging the household. Soon the husband and two sons enter the house only to find their family in danger. The husband is beaten up. His brother also turns up in a while. The robbers flee now, who are chased up by two brothers. They beat the main robber. He is arrested and taken to hospital with injuries. After few days, court trial begins. The criminal goes free; declared permanently brain damaged, and both bothers are jailed on long sentences. And the criminal?? After just two weeks in hospital, he happily starts his career again and conducts yet another set of crimes.

There are numerous examples of British law favouring the criminals and letting down the victims. Usually this occurs under the pretext of human rights for the criminal. However, rights & responsibilities go hand in hand. As soon as a person neglects his responsibilities & goes on the wrong side of the law, he looses his rights. I am not advocating at all that one should take law in his hands or engage in any kind of violent activities. However once a person does not fulfil responsibilities of being a law abiding citizen, he looses his rights also. Especially if he is a convicted criminal and is violating a person’s private property, his honour or life.

Islam is very clear on the subject of justice. No one is allowed to take law in his hands and justice is swift. During the Umar (RA) time, some state officials heard that few people are drinking alcohol in their home. They jumped over the wall into their house and arrested them. When Umar (RA) came to know of the incident. He sat free these people saying that officials have done wrong by entering the private property without permission. Yet same Umar (RA) punished his own son to death when he was convicted. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) summarised the whole Islamic law in one sentence (loose translation) “even Fatima (his daughter) would be punished if she had broken the law”. On occasions He (SAW) presented himself to the law when accused (though He SAW never committed any wrong doing). Islam has a simple view:

“Everyone is equal in the eyes of the law, no matter the person is a Prophet or a president”.

Feb 2010