Ovation for family of tragic Surjit
The family of a murdered waiter who endured a 17-year wait for justice were given a standing ovation by delegates at the SNP conference.
The mother and sister of Surjit Singh Chhokar were applauded on to the stage in Glasgow, accompanied by their lawyer Aamer Anwar.
Flanked by Gurdev Kaur Chhokar and her daughter Manjit Sangha, Anwar told how the Chhokars were a “humble family who demanded justice as a right and not a privilege”.
Earlier this month, Ronnie Coulter was found guilty of murdering Surjit in a retrial held under double jeopardy laws.
Coulter, 48, had been acquitted in 1999, but has now been found guilty by a majority of stabbing the 32-year-old father-of-two as he returned from work in Wishaw, Lanarkshire, in November 1998.
Anwar said the Chhokar case had become “Scotland’s Stephen Lawrence” as he told of the family’s wait for justice.
He said: “On so many occasions I watched a mother and father whose hearts were broken, with no tears left to shed.
“Throughout this period the SNP were unrelenting and unconditional in their support for the Chhokar family.”
The conference passed a motion welcoming the changes to the law which allowed the retrial, expressing hope that the conviction of Coulter “will finally give the family the peace they deserve as they come to the end of a very long journey”.