紐時賞析／喀什米爾記者 面臨當局整肅新模式

Kashmir Journalists Face Forbidding Pattern: Arrest, Bail, Rearrest

喀什米爾記者面臨當局整肅新模式

After being held in jail for close to four years awaiting trial on charges of

aiding militants, Kashmiri journalist Aasif Sultan was granted bail by the

courts last week, and he thought he could finally return home to his wife

and his daughter, who was just 6 months old when he was arrested.

因協助武裝分子罪名遭關押候審近四年後，喀什米爾記者蘇爾坦上周獲法院准予保釋，他認為自己終於可以回到妻子和女兒身邊。他被捕時女兒僅6個月大。

But Indian authorities did not let him go, levying similar charges under a

different law, and have since moved him to a different jail.

但印度當局沒有放他走，根據不同的法律對他提出類似指控，並將他轉移到另一所監獄。

Sultan’s case is the latest instance, rights activists say, in which Indian authorities have weaponized the legal system to limit free speech and

harass journalists, particularly those in the Indian-controlled portion

of the disputed Kashmir region. Some have been arrested under laws that

allow people to be held for extended periods without trial and that make

bail terms extremely difficult and sometimes impossible.

維權人士說，蘇爾坦案是最新一例，顯示印度當局將司法體系當作武器，限制言論自由，騷擾記者，尤其是在有主權爭議的印控喀什米爾地區記者。有些人被捕，根據的法律允許未審就長期囚禁，這造成保釋極其困難，有時甚至不可能。

Sultan is now being held under the stringent Jammu and Kashmir Public

Safety Act, a preventive detention law that lets the region’s

authorities keep a suspect in jail for a maximum of two years — without

any formal criminal charges being filed, and so without any trial and

with no hope for bail — if local authorities contend that the person

presents a security risk or a threat to public order.

蘇爾坦現被關押，是根據嚴格的「查謨與喀什米爾公共安全法」，這是一條預防性羈押法律，允許地方當局在没有任何正式刑事指控，因此没有任何審判亦無保釋希望情況下，關押嫌疑人最多兩年，只要當局認定該人構成安全風險或威脅公共秩序。

Activists argue that the law violates international human rights,

and lawyers say Indian authorities have used it to round up Kashmiris

posing no threat of violence, including journalists, students and

those with sizable political or economic sway in the region.

維權人士表示，這項法律侵犯了國際人權，律師也說印度當局利用這項法律來圍捕沒有暴力威脅的喀什米爾人，包括記者、學生以及在當地具有重大政治或經濟影響力的人。

“The Public Safety Act is based on the apprehension that one may do

something illegal and not that one may have done something illegal,”

said Shafqat Nazir, a lawyer who practices at the High Court of

Srinagar, Kashmir’s largest city. “Just on the basis of an apprehension,

one can rot in jail for two years.”

在喀什米爾最大城市斯利那加高等法院執業的律師納齊爾說：「公共安全法是基於拘押一個可能會做違法事情的人，而非此人可能已經做了違法之事。光是一次拘押，此人就可能在監獄裡待兩年。」

Sultan’s experience — a detention extended either just after a court

grants bail or just before a bail hearing — has become a pattern,

applied against at least two other Kashmiri journalists arrested in

recent months.

蘇爾坦的經歷已成為一種模式，就是在法院准予保釋後或是在保釋聽證會前遭延押，最近幾個月遭逮捕的至少另外兩名喀什米爾記者也有同樣遭遇。

Across India, activists, writers, students, academics and journalists

have complained of an increased climate of intimidation as the

government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in power since 2014, seeks

to stifle its critics.

全印度的維權人士、作家、學生、學者和記者都抱怨恐嚇氣氛日益嚴重，因為自2014年起掌權的總理莫迪政府試圖壓制批評人士。

文／Suhasini Raj 譯／陳韋廷