We are raised to believe that breaking the law is wrong and following the law is right. But what if the law itself is a miscarriage of justice, crafted by those more interested in power and politics than in fairness?
In the US, a country that prides itself on being a beacon of justice, whistleblowers like Snowden and Assange receive life sentences for trying to help their fellow citizens, while war criminals like Geogre Bush and Dick Cheney remain immune and never face charges for inciting mass murder and torture. In Europe, 30 percent of child rapists receive probation, and fewer than 10 percent of rape cases are prosecuted to begin with. At the same time, ordinary people serve years in prison for pirating movies or committing tax fraud.
What is wrong with our justice system? And do we have no choice but to adhere to a system that is proven to be unjust? Or do we have the right to object?
When Serial Pedophiles Walk Free
The famous philosopher Plato said: “The worst form of injustice is pretended justice.”
One of the greatest dangers of a system pretending to be just, is that citizens come to accept the system's injustices as the norm. Over time, they begin to believe that only the state apparatus can implement justice, and that questioning or opposing the justice system makes them criminals or bad citizens.
Imagine a man repeatedly raping a child and through that scarring it forever. Destroying its innocence and happiness, and causing lifelong trauma. Most people would agree that such a crime should be punished with the harshest possible sentence. Yet in Europe, child rapists are often not even imprisoned and continue their lives as if nothing ever happened. The Telegraph for example titled in 2013,
In Germany, for example, a police officer was found guilty of raping two children while on duty. The verdict? Twelve months of probation. In fact, in 2018, a federal court forced the local police station to reemploy the predator, arguing that his offenses occurred too long ago to impact his career.
These lenient verdicts have serious consequences. According to a recent federal study, around 1 million German children are subjected to sexual abuse. In the US, approximately 7 million children are affected.
What a failure of the justice system, that is supposedly designed to safeguard its citizens.
In fact, The Guardian reported that in England and Wales, less than 2 percent of all reported rapes are prosecuted. This means that in 98 percent of cases, the rapist escapes justice and is never held accountable.
It is not only pedophiles that walk free. Many serious and violent offenders plead guilty and get lenient sentences, leading to them walking free after just a few years of prison. According to the Canadian national post:
“The Canadian justice system has freed serial killers, child murderers, mass shooters, cop killers, cannibals and even terrorists. These releases have almost always occurred despite the fervent appeals of victims’ families.”
Life Sentence for Stealing a Wallet or Selling Painkillers
It is shocking to look at the failure of the justice system to put and keep criminals behind bars. This injustice becomes even more difficult to bear when we consider the system's treatment of innocent people or those who have committed minor offenses.
Consider this: In both Europe and the US, you can be sentenced to up to five years in prison for downloading and distributing a movie. Is it fair, by any standard, that someone who sells CDs of Hollywood movies goes to prison for years while someone who raped a child walks free?
No it is not fair, but it happens all around the world, all the time, every single day.
A shocking study by the American Civil Liberties Union has found that more than 3,200 people in the US are serving life terms without parole for nonviolent offenses. The crimes that led to life sentences include stealing gas from a truck, shoplifting, possessing a crack pipe, facilitating a $10 sale of marijuana, and attempting to cash a stolen check.
Patrick Matthews for example is a father of two. He received a life sentence without parole for stealing tools from a tool shed.
It is important to understand that many of those who commit minor thefts are pushed into a life of crime by the very government that convicts them. Around 1 in 500 Americans is homeless. How can a system that creates and enforces poverty, convict those that are forced into a life of petty crime?
Business Insider also reports that hundreds of Americans are serving life sentences for minor drug offenses. Among the most shocking cases are Scott Earle, who received 25 years in prison for selling painkillers; Atiba Parker, who was given 42 years for selling less than three grams of crack; and Todd Hannigan, who received a 15-year prison sentence for attempting to overdose on the painkiller Vicodin.
How can it be that a justice system sentences someone who occasionally sold drugs at a party to 40 years in prison, while a serial rapist receives only five? How does a murderer of 300 girls get released after just 14 years, while a shoplifter is handed a life sentence without parole?
Buy your Justice
Not only are the poor pushed into a life of petty crime, but they are also sentenced much harsher than their wealthy counterparts.
If you are rich enough or powerful enough, you can even break international law — even with complete impunity, like Dick Cheney who openly admitted to advocating and implementing war torture techniques, a crime that is normally punished by a life sentence in prison.
The Bush administration broke a long list of laws; torture, spying without warrants, lying to Congress, and many others. No one has even been charged with these crimes, much less tried or punished.
In contrast, Snowden, who exposed the NSA's mass surveillance programs, has been exiled in Russia since 2013, unable to return home without facing espionage charges that could lead to decades in prison. Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, who was trying to point the world’s attention to war crimes in Iraq, has been imprisoned and held against his will in several countries for trying to help their fellow citizens.
Hosni Mubarak, the former President of Egypt, had a lengthy charge sheet including murder, attempted murder, corruption and profiteering. During the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, Mubarak’s regime was implicated in the deaths of over 800 protesters. Despite this, Mubarak only served 5 years in prison and then walked free. Meanwhile, an anti Mubarak activist was sentenced for 15 years in prison for “violating a protest law” by Egyptian courts.
It is clear that we live in a world, where those who execute and write the laws, are the ones who do not get judged by them.
Miscarriages of Justice
Over the past quarter century, Western nations have incarcerated millions of people. An alarming number of them were wrongly convicted, with some spending decades behind bars for crimes they did not commit. According to the 1996 book Convicted But Innocent, roughly 10,000 people in the United States may be wrongfully convicted of serious crimes each year. Wikipedia's "List of miscarriage of justice cases" lists hundreds of wrongful convictions, with many individuals serving years, sometimes decades, in prison without having committed any crime.
But as if it were not enough that people are accidentally convicted while innocent, in some cases, persecutors purposefully coerce someone who is innocent to admitting to a crime he did not commit. Declassified confession tapes show that many investigators use psychological and physical pressure to extract convictions from innocent people.
This boy for example was coerced into giving a false confession by the Detroit police and spent 9 years in prison while being completely innocent.
This is the interrogation of the innocent Thomas Cogdell. He was 12 when his little sister was murdered and was pressured to confess to the crime. The judges accepted his confession and sent him to prison for years until the verdict was finally overturned.
A landmark case of wrongful conviction fueled by racism is that of the "Central Park Five." In 1989, five Black teenagers were wrongfully convicted of raping and assaulting a white woman in Central Park. Although the police had no evidence or eyewitness testimony that incriminated them, the police coerced confessions from the teens through violent interrogation tactics. After spending a decade in prison, their convictions were overturned when the real perpetrator was found.
They did not receive any apology and the officers and prosecutors responsible for the wrongful convictions have not received any repercussions, due to the rule of prosecutorial immunity.
Yes, that is correct: A prosecutor who induces a witness or suspect to lie under oath is immune from civil liability. If a prosecutor withholds evidence of a defendant’s innocence at trial and the defendant is wrongfully convicted, the defendant has no legal recourse against the prosecutor.
Miscarriages of Justice and the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light
Members of the AROPL have experienced miscarriages of justice ever since its inception. Today, we won’t delve into the heresy laws of countries like Algeria, Malaysia, and Iran, where constitutional provisions criminalize the propagation of any faith other than the state religion. However, it is worth noting that the AROPL has also struggled with the nonsensical justice system in the West.
In May 2023, 104 members of the AROPL, persecuted for their religion in their home countries, received news from the Bulgarian Council on Refugees and Migrants and over 20 human rights organizations that they would “process their asylum applications as soon as they reached Bulgarian soil.” They understood this to be a humanitarian invitation from the Bulgarian government to welcome them—as any normal person would. Yet, Turkish border guards violently stopped them at Kapikule, as they did not have visas to enter Bulgaria. The invitation from the Bulgarian Council on Refugees and Migrants was not enough. At the same time, Bulgaria does not offer humanitarian visas and strongly condemns illegal entry into the country by cutting the border fence.
So, one may ask, how should the 104, or any person persecuted in Turkey and their home country, reach safety to lodge an asylum application? Is it not completely ridiculous to offer an asylum proceedure to those who enter the country legally, but then offer no way and no visa to do so? Systems like these make a mockery of the so-called “justice” system.
In July 2024, Turkey once more proved the absurdity of its asylum system when 40 members from Iraq and Iran applied for asylum in the country. Under Turkish asylum law, the government can assign applicants to so-called Satellite cities without regard to whether they have housing or connections there. The government provides no accommodation or support, leaving asylum seekers stranded in unfamiliar cities with no assistance. For the AROPL members, this policy meant that four elderly women with serious health conditions were placed in Satellite cities alone, without any support network. The Turkish government, by law, sentenced them to a life on the street or to return home to Iran and Iraq, where they face prison for their religious convictions.
On July 24, 2024, the Sabail District Court sentenced Rustam Gasimli and Neriman Shabanzade to 30 days in prison for "hooliganism" (Article 510 of the Azerbaijani Criminal Code) and "disobedience to a police officer" (Article 535.1 of the Azerbaijani Criminal Code). The court protocol accuses them of destruction of property as well as an aggressive demeanor, while the entire event was caught live on camera until the moment of their arrest. The two believers are seen peacefully and quietly distributing flyers in Baku, Azerbaijan. One is left to wonder, if the ruling judge has either failed to watch the video that was provided by the believers lawyer or chosen to ignore it?
The current state of the justice systems around the world are proof that we are living in the end of time, a time during which the world is described to be full of injustice.
Imam al-Sadiq said:
"Verily when the Riser of the family of Mohammed rises he shall equally divide and spread justice amongst the people… And he shall fill the earth with justice and light just as it has been filled with oppression, injustice and evil.”
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