[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide----PAKISTAN

[Rick Halperin]

PAKISTAN:


EXECUTION DATE SET FOR MENTALLY ILL MAN

Khizar Hayat’s execution is scheduled for 28 July. He has suffered from a 
mental disability since 2008 and has taken medication regularly since then.
International law prohibits the execution of those with mental and intellectual 
disabilities.

Click here to view the full Urgent Action in Word or PDF format, including case 
information, addresses and sample messages.

Khizar Hayat, a mentally ill man from the Punjab province, is scheduled for 
execution on 28 July. He was initially scheduled to be executed on 16 June
but his lawyers petitioned the Lahore High Court to suspend the death warrant 
on the basis of his mental disability. The Court suspended the warrant at
the last minute, asking the prison authorities to respond to the lawyers’ 
points on the state of his mental disability. In a written reply to the High
Court submitted on 17 June, the prison authorities stated that Khizar Hayat has 
a mental disability and is taking regular anti-psychotic medication. They
nonetheless said that Khizar Hayat is “partially stable” when on medication; 
however, this has been contradicted by his lawyers and family members after
recent meetings with him. The High Court dismissed Khizar Hayat’s petition 
based on the prison authorities’ statement and issued the second death
warrant. Khizar Hayat’s lawyers argue that the prison authorities’ statement 
contradicted the evidence in his medical records. The court failed to order
an independent medical board to resolve the dispute.

Khizar Hayat’s prison records indicate his mental disability was diagnosed in 
2008. Since then, he has taken powerful anti-psychotic medicine prescribed
by medical professionals but never received any other treatment, and his 
mother’s requests to move him to a proper medical treatment facility have been
ignored. Khizar Hayat’s disability has caused him mental and physical suffering 
and made him the target of abuse and physical attacks by other prisoners.
In 2009 prisoners attacked him, causing severe head injuries for which he was 
admitted to hospital and operated on. By 2012 such attacks were so frequent
that Khizar Hayat was moved to an isolated cell in the prison hospital, where 
he has been held ever since.

Khizar Hayat, a former police officer, was arrested in connection with the 
murder of another police officer and convicted in 2003. His mercy petition is
currently pending with the President of Pakistan, who has the direct authority 
to commute his death sentence.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Following the Pakistani Taliban attack on the army-run school in Peshawar on 16 
December 2014, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif partially lifted the six-year
moratorium on executions, allowing the death penalty to be used in terrorism 
cases. On 11 March 2015, the Pakistan government announced that it was
unconditionally lifting the moratorium for all capital crimes and threatened to 
send up to 1,000 prisoners to the gallows who have exhausted all legal
options and their mercy petitions. In total, 180 prisoners have been executed 
since the moratorium was lifted. A temporary moratorium on executions was
placed during the month of Ramadan, but execution warrants have again started 
to be issued since the end of Ramadan on the 20th of July 2015.

Click here to view the full Urgent Action in Word or PDF format.

Name: Khizar Hayat (m)
Issues: Death penalty, Imminent execution, Legal concern UA: 164/15 Issue Date: 
24 July 2015
Country: Pakistan

Please let us know if you took action so that we can track our impact!

EITHER send a short email to uan at aiusa.org with “UA 164/15” in the subject 
line, and include in the body of the email the number of letters and/or emails
you sent,

OR fill out this short online form to let us know how you took action.

Thank you for taking action! Please check with the AIUSA Urgent Action Office 
if taking action after the appeals date. If you receive a response from a
government official, please forward it to us at uan at aiusa.org or to the Urgent 
Action Office address below.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Please write immediately in English or your own language:
  *  Urging the President of Pakistan to accept Khizar Hayat’s mercy petition, 
and re-establish the official moratorium on all executions in the country
     as a first step towards the abolition of the death penalty, in line with 
five UN General Assembly resolutions adopted since 2007;
  *  Calling on them to review all cases of all people under sentence of death 
with a view to their commutation (changing the death sentence to that of a
     life or other lesser sentence), and ensuring that no one with a mental or 
intellectual disability is sentenced to death or executed;
  *  Calling on them to ensure that any measures taken to combat crime do not 
violate Pakistan’s obligations under international human rights law and that
     all safeguards guaranteeing the rights of those facing the death penalty 
are respected.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 28 JULY 2015 TO:

President of Pakistan
Honorable Mr Mamnoon Hussain
President's Secretariat
Islamabad, Pakistan
Fax: 011 92 51 920 8479
Twitter: @Mamnoon_hussain
Salutation: Your Excellency


Chief Minister of Punjab
Chaudhry Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif
Chief Minister Secretariat
Lahore, Pakistan
Fax: 011 92 42 992 04915, 011 92 42 992 03224
Twitter: @CMShehbaz
Salutation: Dear Chief Minister


Prime Minister of Pakistan
Muhammad Nawaz Sharif
Prime Minister House
Secretariat, Constitution Avenue
Islamabad, Pakistan
Fax: 011 92 51 922 0404 (PM Secretariat)
Twitter: @PMNawazSharif
Salutation: Dear Prime Minister

Also send copies to: H.E. Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani, Embassy of The Islamic 
Republic of Pakistan
3517 International Ct NW, Washington DC 20008
Fax: 1 202 686 1534  I  Phone: 1 202 243 6500  I  Email: 
info at embassyofpakistanusa.org

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