Dignity of a wronged father

When police and courts acted quickly to punish the culprits in last summer’s riots with harsh sentences, we at last felt our judicial system was in touch with the wishes of the people. A woman who accepted a pair of stolen shorts was sentenced to five months in prison. Two young men who used the internet to encouraged thugs to riot were given four years each.

Week after week we saw perpetrators of the violence brought to justice. For the first time in years we had confidence in our judiciary. This week that confidence suffered a crushing blow.

Perhaps the most horrendous act during the riots last August was the killing of three young Muslim men, mown down by a car while protecting their businesses.

it was described by the prosecution as ‘a modern-day chariot charge’ on defenceless men.

On Thursday, the eight men charged with the murder of haroon Jahan, 21, shazad Ali, 30, and Abdul Musavir, 31, were cleared, and celebrated with champagne and the clenched fists of triumph.

it is hard to comprehend how a case in which a car was driven into three young men, killing them all, could end with such a decision.

They walked free partly because the officer in charge of the investigation lied on oath. But what a mockery it makes of justice when rioters who nick a pair of shorts get a prison sentence, while those who snuff out three lives get nothing.

The wisest words came from Tariq Jahan, the father of haroon, one of the three men killed on that terrible night.

After the case, he called for ‘ peace and calm’ in his fractured Birmingham community, just as he had done on the night of the riots when his son died. At least from this tragic episode we can take a glimmer of hope in the dignity of a grieving father who insists violence is the problem, not the answer.