There is no concept in the Caliphate of a ‘pardon’ for crimes committed and where a sentence has been passed as exists in the west. The US constitution allows the President to Pardon all crimes except impeachment.

Article II, Section 2 states that the President: “shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.”

This gives the US President huge judicial power in overturning court rulings or even preventing prosecutions from taking place. The most famous ‘misuse’ of this power was by Gerald Ford in 1974. After Richard Nixon resigned from office due to the Watergate scandal his Vice-President Gerald Ford assumed the Presidency. In a televised address to the nation on 8 September 1974 President Ford gave Nixon a full and unconditional pardon for his part in the Watergate scandal, hence preventing any further judicial proceedings against him. Critics claimed that this was a ‘corrupt bargain’ between the two men. Nixon would resign giving Ford the Presidency in return for Ford giving Nixon a full pardon.

Most recently Donald Trump pardoned four Blackwater contractors who massacred 14 civilians in Baghdad in 2007, including two children. Three of the contractors – Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard were sentenced to 30 years in 2014, and the fourth Nicholas Slatten was sentenced to life.

All four are now free after Trump pardoned their crimes. This is the reality of democracy and its man-made judicial and executive branches.

Such incident can never take place in the Caliphate.

This is an extract from the book, Accountability in the Caliphate by Abdul-Kareem Newell.