Home Latest News Death Warrant Issued for Shafqat Hussain

Death Warrant Issued for Shafqat Hussain

by AFP
Courtesy Reprieve

Courtesy Reprieve

Rights campaigners say man convicted as a teenager should not have to face the gallows.

Authorities on Thursday issued a death warrant for a killer condemned as a teenager, as a triple murderer was hanged in the 25th execution since the country resumed capital punishment in December.

An anti-terrorism court in Karachi gave a new order to hang Shafqat Hussain, convicted of killing a seven-year-old boy in 2004, on March 19.

Court documents say Hussain was only 15 at the time of the killing and his case has triggered anger from rights campaigners who say that as he was convicted as a child, he should not face the gallows.

The government halted Hussain’s execution, originally slated for Jan. 14, after protests about his age and ordered an investigation. But on Thursday Nusrat Mangan, the head of the Karachi jail where Hussain is being held, said a new death warrant had been issued after the Interior Ministry rejected the age plea.

The Justice Project Pakistan, a human rights law firm representing Hussain, complained that no proper investigation into his age had been carried out.

Hussain’s death warrant came hours after Muhammad Siddique, a security guard convicted by an anti-terrorism court of murdering three people in a theater following a quarrel, was hanged in Toba Tek Singh district in Punjab province.

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