Two jailed for assaulting Sikh-American
Saturday, 20/05/2017
http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=176845&boxid=63501&uid=&dat=2017-05-20
New York: A US court has sentenced two persons to three years in prison after charging them with hate crime for brutally assaulting a Sikh-American man last year in California.
Chase Little and Colton Leblanc were found guilty of felony assault and hate crime charges. They were sentenced to a three-year term in the California state prison for attacking Maan Singh Khalsa. Khalsa, a Sikh American father and IT specialist, was brutally assaulted in Richmond Bay area, California in September last year. “The recognition of the attack as a hate crime - as harm to my dignity and my entire community - is the first step in the process,” said Khalsa, who had recognised his attackers during his statement in court on Thursday. “I still consider you my brothers, and I hope that you will learn about me and my community, and one day consider me your brother, too,” he said according to a statement issued yesterday by the rights group named The Sikh Coalition. Prior to the charges, the coalition, community leaders, and a group of civil rights organisations advocated vigorously on behalf of Khalsa, urging for a hate crime investigation and prosecution. “Acknowledging that this bias-based attack is a hate crime under state law both recognises the deep dignitary harm to Khalsa, and ensures that we, as a society, confront the problems of Islamophobia, racism and xenophobia that make the Sikh community a target for violence,” the coalition’s staff attorney Pawanpreet Kaur said.
highlights
The Sikh-American was stopped at an intersection.
The attackers assaulted by hitting his face repeatedly, knocking off his turban and cutting his religiously-mandated unshorn hair with a knife.
