Lahore High Court, Pakistan

PAKISTAN. LAHORE HIGH COURT STAYS THREE EXECUTIONS AND DISMISSES A FOURTH

June 6, 2006: a Lahore High Court division bench, Pakistan, stayed the execution of three condemned prisoners, Muhammad Ilyas, Muhammad Abbas and Muhammad Ilyas, scheduled to be executed later in the day, the daily times reported.  The stay was to ascertain whether the heirs of the deceased wanted to compromise. The three had been sentenced to death by a Gujranwala anti-terrorism court for killing Abid Hussain, Mohammad Akram, Liaqat Ali, Zahid and Mohammad Inayat on June 4, 1997. The motive for the crime was unreported. On the same day, the Lahore High Court rejected an application to stay the execution of Muhammad Asif. Asif was to be executed later in the day in the Gujranwala Central Jail.
The Supreme Court had earlier upheld the convict’s death sentence and the Pakistani president had refused the mercy petition.
Legal aid committee chairman of the Lahore High Court Bar Association, Muzammal Akhtar Shabbir, had argued that the convict was a juvenile at the time of the crime in 1997 and as such could not be awarded the death sentence. The nature of the crime was not reported. “The prisoner did not plead being a minor because he was not aware of the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2000,” he added. The court dismissed the petition, saying that Asif should have said he was a minor to the trial court, High Court and the Supreme Court. (Sources: www.dailytimes.com.pk, 06/06/2006)