Stay of execution for Briton in Pakistan
A man holding dual Pakistani and British nationality on death row for murder has been granted a stay of execution in Pakistan until October 1.
Mirza Tahir Hussain (aged 36), from Leeds was convicted of murdering taxi driver Jamshed Khan in 1988 in Pakistan. Hussain has always claimed the victim died when his own gun discharged during a struggle after Khan attempted to sexually assault him.
Pakistani authorities notified the British High Commission that Hussain’s execution had been delayed until October 1, said a spokesman in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
Hussain was scheduled to be executed on August 3, but that was postponed for one month just days before he was expected to be hanged.
Amnesty International and other human rights organisations have condemned his planned execution and accused the judiciary of holding corrupt and unfair trials.
“While this further stay of one month gives me and my family a little relief, it is not enough and in many ways it is extending the uncertainty and agony my brother and all of us have now lived with for 18 years,” said Hussain’s brother, Amjad Hussain, in a statement issued by Amnesty.
A high court revoked Hussain’s death penalty in November 1992 because of discrepancies in the prosecution’s case. However, an Islamic, or Sharia, court later charged him with armed robbery and sentenced him to death in a split verdict.
Pakistan has two parallel, sometimes overlapping legal systems: one based on British common law and another based on Islamic law. The Sharia, or Islamic, and ordinary legal systems often overturn each others’ decisions in unresolved jurisdictional battles.
