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Pakistan hangs Shafqat Hussain despite claim he was a child at time of crime Pakistan hangs Shafqat Hussain despite claim he was a child at time of crime
(about 7 hours later)
Pakistan has executed a convicted killer who, according to supporters, was a juvenile at the time of his crime, and despite strenuous objections from human rights groups and the United Nations to the hanging. Pakistan has hanged a man whose execution was repeatedly postponed amid international pressure over claims that he was a child at the time he murdered a boy more than a decade ago.
Shafqat Hussain was hanged shortly before dawn on Tuesday at a jail in Karachi for killing a seven-year-old boy in the city in 2004, his brother and a prison official told AFP. Shafqat Hussain was executed at 4.30am in the central jail in the southern city of Karachi after winning four last-minute reprieves in recent months.
Related: Justice in Pakistan: "The government is hanging people left, right and centre"Related: Justice in Pakistan: "The government is hanging people left, right and centre"
His case drew international attention as his lawyers and family claim he was only 15 at the time of the killing and was tortured into confessing. He was sentenced in 2004 by an anti-terrorism court for kidnapping and killing a seven-year-old boy who had gone missing from an apartment building in Karachi, where Hussain worked as a watchman.
United Nations rights experts have said his trial “fell short of international standards” and urged Pakistan to investigate claims he confessed under torture, as well as his age. The hanging took place despite last-minute attempts to spare him, including a request by the Sindh Human Rights Commission, a statutory body, for a supreme court inquiry into an affair that has already been reviewed by the country’s top court.
The government of Kashmir, Hussain’s home region, urged President Mamnoon Hussain late on Monday to postpone the execution to allow further inquiries, but the hanging went ahead as planned. Central to the campaign by human rights groups was the claim Hussain was just 14 at the time of the alleged crime, and therefore ineligible for execution under Pakistani law.
“Shafqat Hussain was hanged 10 to 12 minutes before dawn prayers today,” a prison official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. His lawyers also argued Hussain was tortured by police into making a confession.
Hussain’s brother Gul Zaman confirmed the news to AFP. “Pakistan authorities have never undertaken a proper, judicial investigation into either issue,” the rights group Justice Project Pakistan said in a statement after Hussain’s execution.
Hussain was originally due to face the noose in January, but won four stays of execution as his lawyers fought to prove he was under 18 at the time of his offence and could therefore not be executed under Pakistani law. “Instead seizing and refusing to release key evidence such as Shafqat’s school record, which could have provided proof that he was under 18 when he was sentenced to death.”
A government-ordered probe to determine Hussain’s age, carried out by the Federal Investigation Agency, ruled he was an adult at the time of his conviction – though the results have not been published officially. The police have insisted Hussain was, in fact, 23 when he was arrested.
Pakistan has hanged around 180 convicts since restarting executions in December after Taliban militants massacred more than 150 people at a school, most of them children. Despite the vigorous campaign to spare Hussain, which received backing from United Nations experts, some lawyers who have reviewed the case have remained unconvinced.
A moratorium on the death penalty had been in force since 2008 and its end angered rights activists and alarmed some foreign countries. “There is no evidence that he was under age,” said Chaudhry Faisal Hussain, a prominent lawyer. He pointed out the plea for an investigation into Hussain’s age was dismissed by Islamabad high Court judge Athar Minallah, one of the country’s most respected legal figures.
The European Union, which opposes capital punishment in all cases, has been particularly vocal. “This case has been needlessly lingered by civil society who want to create a parallel judicial system by creating media trials. Unfortunately people tend to believe what the media says.”
Last week the EU mission in Islamabad said it was “deeply concerned” by the resumption of hangings and warned that a prized trade status granted to Pakistan could be threatened unless it stuck to international conventions on fair trials, child rights and preventing torture.
Hussain, the youngest of seven children, was working as a watchman in Karachi in 2004 when the seven-year-old boy went missing from the neighbourhood.
A few days later the boy’s family received calls from Hussain’s mobile demanding a ransom of half a million rupees ($8,500 at the time), according to legal papers.
Hussain was arrested and admitted kidnapping and killing him, but later withdrew his confession, saying he had made it under duress.
His true age has proved difficult to ascertain – exact birth records are not always kept in Pakistan, particularly for people from poor families like Hussain’s.
Related: Pakistan executes man who was 15 when convicted of murderRelated: Pakistan executes man who was 15 when convicted of murder
A birth certificate circulated in the media several months ago, but it appeared to have been issued only in December and interior minister Chaudhry Ali Nisar Khan said there was no proof of its authenticity. Pakistan has seen a spree of executions following the lifting of a death penalty moratorium last year in the aftermath of the attack in December by Taliban militants on a school in Peshawar that killed more than 130 school boys.
Amnesty International estimates that Pakistan has more than 8,000 prisoners on death row, most of whom have exhausted the appeals process. Last week the European Union expressed its concerns about the “alarming pace” of executions, with more than 190 convicts hanged since December, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
Supporters of the death penalty in Pakistan argue that it is the only effective way to deal with the scourge of militancy. “This is another deeply sad day for Pakistan, said David Griffiths from rights group Amnesty International. “A man whose age remains disputed and whose conviction was built around torture has now paid with his life – and for a crime for which the death penalty cannot be imposed under international law.”
But critics say Pakistan’s courts are largely unjust forums, with rampant police torture, poor legal representation for victims, and unfair trials.