PAKISTAN: FIRST PERSON EXECUTED AFTER MORATORIUM ON THE DEATH PENALTY COMPLETELY ENDED

12 March 2015 :

A man convicted of a triple murder – Mohammad Siddique – was hanged at the District Jail in the city of Toba Tek Singh in the Pakistani province of Punjab. He became the first person executed after Pakistan completely ended a moratorium on the death penalty.
The death penalty had been partially re-introduced in December only for armed groups convicted of terrorism but Pakistani provinces were officially notified on 3 March about the death penalty being reintroduced for other crimes, including murder, rape and kidnap.
Siddique, who was a security guard of a cinema in Kamalia, shot dead three men – Nadeem Abbas, Muhammad Nadeem and Muhammad Rafi – for hooting during a dance performance in a 2004 stage show.
Judge Chaudhry Muhammed Yousuf Ojla of Faisalabad’s anti-terrorism court awarded Siddique death sentence six times on 16 May 2005. His subsequent mercy appeals were rejected by the Lahore High Court, Supreme Court and President of Pakistan. After the execution, the jail officials handed his body to his brother.
 

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