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| Shafqat Hussain |
A hearing will be held tomorrow [March 17] in the case of a Pakistani man who was convicted aged 14. The Ministry of the Interior previously promised to conduct an inquiry into the conviction but has failed to do so and scheduled the execution for Thursday.
Shafqat Hussain was convicted of the kidnap and manslaughter of another child based on one piece of evidence: a forced ‘confession’ extracted after nine days of police torture. A previous warrant was issued scheduling his execution for 14th January 2015 but after serious concerns over his age and the safety of his initial conviction were raised, the execution was stayed on 5th January. The execution of people convicted as juveniles is illegal in Pakistan, as is the use of torture evidence.
In January, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar told the Pakistani National Assembly that he had ordered an inquiry into Shafqat’s conviction. Despite this none of Shafqat’s family or legal team have been contacted about the inquiry and his execution has been scheduled for Thursday.
In an appeal filed by Shafqat’s lawyers at the Justice Project Pakistan today (Monday), which will be heard by the Sindh High Court tomorrow, Shafqat’s lawyers argue that the government’s attempts to execute Shafqat are illegal. This is because of his conviction as a child, the fact his conviction is based on evidence extracted through torture, and that the scheduling of the execution despite the promise of a full inquiry into the facts of the case is illegal and arbitrary.
It is not known how many of the more than 8,000 on Pakistan's death row were convicted as children.
Maya Foa, Director of Reprieve’s death penalty team, said: “The execution of anyone convicted when they were just a child is illegal, not to mention morally abhorrent. Shafqat’s innocence, and the fact that his ‘confession’ was extracted after nine days of brutal police torture, make the Pakistani government’s attempts to kill this young man even more horrendous. Minister Nisar promised an inquiry into Shafqat’s conviction because he knows that it was wrong to begin with – it is a shocking abuse of office that he has reneged on this commitment. Shafqat’s execution - and all others - must be halted so that the inquiry that was so rightly promised can go ahead. If it does not, it will show exactly how much weight the rule of law now carries in Pakistan. ”
Source: Reprieve, March 16, 2015
Shafqat Hussain: Child offender to be executed in Pakistan
He was sentenced to death at just 14 years of age.
Shafqat Hussain was found guilty of killing another boy who was just half his age.
His family say he was tortured into confessing the crime, while human rights groups have called for his execution to be called off given his young age when the crime took place.
If his execution does go ahead as planned, he will be one of 8000 estimated inmates who are set to be executed on death row in the South-East Asian country.
Pakistan has lifted its moratorium on the death penalty in all capital cases after restarting executions for terrorism offences in the wake of a Taliban school massacre.
The interior ministry last week directed provincial governments to proceed with hangings for prisoners who have exhausted all avenues of appeal and clemency, a move which has been widely condemned by human rights groups.
Meanwhile Hussain's elderly mother made an emotional appeal for authorities to halt the execution of her son.
The then teenager was sentenced in 2004 by a court in the port city of Karachi after it found him guilty of killing another boy.
In a telephone interview from the Pakistani-controlled section of the disputed Kashmir territory, Makhni Begum insisted that Hussain was innocent.
"I request to the government and I beg to the judiciary to order the retrial of my son. Please spare his life. Don't snatch him from me," she sobbed. The woman said her son went to Karachi to work as a security guard, but one day she heard that he had been arrested in a murder case.
Hussain's brother Manzoor alleged that his brother was tortured by police to force a confession.
"My brother was subjected to the worst torture for admitting that he had killed another boy and dumped his body" near a drain in Karachi, he said.
No police official was immediately available for comment.
Manzoor, who uses only 1 name, said the jail authorities had summoned them for a final meeting with Hussain, who is scheduled to be executed on March 19.
Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said executing child offenders is a barbarous violation of basic decency and international law.
"Sending someone to the gallows for an alleged crime committed as a child shows the Pakistani government's disregard for children's rights."
Pakistan has ratified both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which specifically prohibit capital punishment of anyone who was under 18 at the time of the offence.
According to HRW, Pakistan's execution of an alleged child offender on June 13, 2006, when authorities in Peshawar hanged Mutabar Khan.
A trial court in Swabi had sentenced Khan to death on October 6, 1998, for the alleged murder of 5 people in April 1996.
A Pakistani human rights organisation has also called for Hussain's execution to be halted due to his youthful age when the crime was committed.
In a statement, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said Pakistan's minister for interior had announced in January that an inquiry would be conducted into the concerns raised regarding Hussain's conviction. "No such inquiry has taken place," it said.
Pakistan imposed a moratorium on executions in 2008, but partially lifted the ban in December after a Taliban attack on a school in the north-western city of Peshawar killed 150 people, mostly children.
The death penalty moratorium was completely lifted this month with authorities making plans to execute all prisoners on death row.
Source: news.com.au, March 16, 2014
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