PAKISTAN. CHRISTIAN HANGED DESPITE CLEMENCY APPEAL

March 12, 2008: a Christian man was hanged in Pakistan, after being convicted of killing a Muslim boy in what rights groups described as an unfair trial. Zahid Masih, who was in his 20s, was executed at 6:00 am local time at the Central Jail in the city of Multan in Pakistan's Punjab province, despite appeals for clemency. His mother and other relatives were seen crying inconsolably outside the Central Jail when they received Masih's remains, two hours after the execution took place.
His defence team, church groups and human rights organizations urged Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf and other authorities to grant Masih clemency, or at least a postponement of the death sentence till after Easter. Masih, a former sanitary worker in the Pakistan Army, was sentenced to death by a military court in March 2006 on charges of murdering a 9-year-old Muslim boy, identified as Muhammad Adnan.
The incident allegedly happened while he was serving in the military in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province. Masih denied the charges, saying previous statements of admission were made under duress while in custody, including some 28 days of torture. (Sources: Bosnewslife.com, 12/03/2008)