The Trial - Part 1

‘This man must be hanged till death!!!’ screamed the newspaper headlines. This has been a quiet year apart from genocide of 2 million people (This number seems paltry when compared to the last year's figure of 10 million), 5 million youth have been forcefully drafted into the government’s military regime and just 4 countries have been obliterated from the face of the earth. This kind of news has been common for last few years hence nobody raised an eyebrow when they heard that some XYZ country has been bombed by the military forces. But the news today on headlines did create a ripple among the citizens of the country because it was so uncommon.

The story below the headline stated that a man has been arrested on the charges of murdering the most powerful religious head of the country. It was also said that this man is going to be tried publicly and the trial is also going to be telecasted to all corners of the world. The date of the trial was set to be September 2^nd, 2084 i.e. a week’s time from then.

Right from the moment the story became public, hate campaigns broke out through out the country. Demonstrations were held demanding to castrate the killer before chopping his head off, so called peace protests were held demanding to torture the man before being electrocuted, petitions were signed by hundreds of thousands to hang the man without a trial. Even the human right activists campainged that the man should be killed using a lethal injection.It was a busy week for the citizens of the country which hasn’t seen such buzz in recent years.

The man in question was kept in a high security prison with armed personnel guarding the prison 24x7. Nobody was permitted to speak to him or see him. The only person who was permitted to speak with him was the government appointed attorney to defend the man. But the next day news headlines read that the man has refused the defense counsel provided by the government and asked permission to the government to plead his own case. Government happily granted permission because no attorney was ready to take up the case in first place.

On the day of the trial, it was a pompous atmosphere all over the country. It just seemed like a festive season from old days. It was declared a public holiday by the government because they wanted to show the people as to what happens to those who break the law. They had no clue what they were in for...

To be continued …..