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Sorry - this page has been removed. Pakistani execution postponed over age dispute
(about 1 month later)
This could be because it launched early, our rights have expired, there was a legal issue, or for another reason. A Pakistani judge has stayed the execution of a man who lawyers say was 14 when he was charged with murder – a case that has angered rights groups and prompted mercy appeals from his family.
Shafqat Hussain was scheduled to be executed on Wednesday but was granted a second reprieve. In March he was dressed in a white uniform ready for hanging and told to write his will, before his execution was postponed while the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) looked into the question of his age.
For further information, please contact: Related: Pakistan faces global anger over bid to execute man jailed over killing aged 14
The agency later determined he was not a juvenile at the time of the killing and a new execution date was set. But that was also challenged.
Shahab Siddiqui, of the Justice Project Pakistan, a legal aid group representing Hussain, said: “The judge has ruled that the FIA did not have the mandate to conduct the investigation into Shafqat’s age and this should be done by a competent judicial forum. So until the matter is decided, his execution is stayed.”
Hussain’s lawyers say he was burnt with cigarettes and had fingernails removed until he confessed to the killing of a child. Under Pakistani law, the death sentence cannot be imposed on a defendant who was under 18 at the time of the crime, and testimony obtained by torture is inadmissible in trials.
Hussain’s family has made appeals to the government, complaining of a flawed justice system that allowed months of torture to extract a confession.
In December the prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, lifted a moratorium on the death penalty a day after Pakistani Taliban gunmen attacked a school, killing 134 pupils and 19 adults. Since then 102 people have been executed, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
Human rights groups say convictions in Pakistan are highly unreliable because its antiquated criminal justice system barely functions, torture is common and the police are mostly untrained.