'Parallel universes' continue for the Groves family

Wednesday 02 January 2019

As another new year is rung in, Sarah Groves' family continue to fight for justice in her memory, while doing good work in her name.

In a message through the media, her parents, Kate and Vic Groves, said they live in "parallel universes" with the "tribulations of a trial in Kashmir which drags on with no clear end in sight" on one side, and the good work of the Sarah Groves Foundation on the other side.

"On one side we have the tribulations of a trial in Kashmir which drags on with no clear end in sight. This is the most overbearing aspect of our lives and we thank you for continuing to bring the case into the public gaze despite, in all honesty, very little to report on many occasions. We are desperate to move this onto the UK national agenda and all help in this regard will be hugely appreciated," they said.

"The upside of our lives is the Sarah Groves Foundation and here again we thank you in all sincerity for supporting us at every opportunity. We have had a hugely successful year with close-on £200,000 raised, mainly via the Tour de Sez bike ride to Amsterdam in September. It is vitally important that the Guernsey public understand where this money goes and your support in this regard has enabled us to get that message out very well indeed. Some examples are Magical Days in the Park, the Guille-Allès Children’s Library and the donation of 21 bikes at Christmas."

The work of the Sarah Groves Foundation has been well publicised locally with the new children's library proving to be hugely popular in particular. 

Pictured: The new children's library during its construction. 

Meanwhile, the trial of the man accused of murdering Sarah Groves has now reached 146 scheduled hearings in Srinagar.

Most of those have been postponed or cancelled, with the latest also unable to proceed. This time it was because the Judge was absent for unknown reasons.

The man accused of murdering Miss Groves, Richard de Wit, was also not brought to court due to civil unrest. None of the scheduled witnesses were there either.

Mr and Mrs Groves said this week's non-events in court "end a year of total frustration" which has included:

• 37 scheduled hearings
• Of which 30 were deferred without progress
• 12 due to absent witnesses; 9 to civil unrest; 4 to strikes; 5 to various other reasons
• Only 7 productive or semi-productive hearings
• Only 4 witnesses fully heard – one of which spanned 280 days from November 2017
• No progress in 8 scheduled hearings since 1^st November 2018
• No evidence of a substantive nature presented

The Groves said the trial has "effectively ground to a halt," and that "discussions with our legal representative have been held with the aim of addressing the root causes of the delays that should and could have been avoided, especially the non-attendance of witnesses.  The responsibility for this lies with the Prosecutor, Mr Mohammad Sultan, who despite many rebukes from the Judge, still seems incapable of getting witnesses into court as required. 

"It transpires that Mr Sultan is technically classified as a Special Public Prosecutor and, as such, has responsibility for other cases as well, some of which take place in different courtrooms within the same court complex.  This case is far from his only responsibility and, it would seem, far from his top priority.  Throughout 2018, he has frequently not been in our court when required."

Pictured: Sarah Groves and Richard de Wit, who denies murder. 

The Groves family are hoping that now they're fully aware of the situation with the prosector, they can push for more progress to be made.

"We have been trying to secure his replacement for many months and at Hearing Number 134 on 9 October 2018 Judge Raina undertook to write to the Law Department requesting his replacement with immediate effect following similar complaints from Richard de Wit’s Defence Counsel.  According to court records, no such letter was written.  We will now be writing our own letter to the Law Department highlighting the ineffectiveness of Mr Sultan as Prosecutor in the case with a request for his immediate replacement.

"Various other steps are going on in the background to retrieve the situation.  We thank you for your support and on-going interest in this farcical trial.  We end this year in the hope that a safe outcome will be reached in 2019 and that the first meaningful stage of closure can be achieved."

The next scheduled court date is Wednesday 16 January 2019.

Pictured top: Sarah Groves.