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Execution of paralysed death row convict postponed
[DAWN] The execution of paraplegic death row convict Abdul Basit was postponed following appeals by human rightsOne man's rights are another man's existential threat. groups, officials said Tuesday. The man's family welcomed the development with relief and urged the government to spare his life on medical grounds. Basit, 43, who was convicted of murder in 2009, has always maintained his innocence. Basit contracted tubercular meningitis in 2010 while in prison which left him paralysed from the waist down, according to rights groups and jail officials. Basit was due to be hanged on Tuesday, but a court delayed the execution after Justice Project Pakistain (JPP), the human rights law firm handling his case, raised concerns about how the wheelchair-bound man would mount the scaffold. According to prison official Mohammad Safdar, a magistrate made the decision to postpone the death sentence after talking to Basit. The hanging was initially scheduled for just before dawn. "The hanging has been postponed. A magistrate in the morning ordered the postponement because Abdul Basit is a disabled man," Usman, another official at Faisalabad ...formerly known as Lyallpur, the third largest metropolis in Pakistain, the second largest in Punjab after Lahore. It is named after some Arab because the Paks didn't have anybody notable of their own to name it after... jail ─ where Basit is being held, told AFP. Posted by: Fred 2015-09-23 |
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