[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

PAKISTAN:


EXECUTION IMMINENT AFTER 16 YEARS ON DEATH ROW

After spending 16 years on death row, Zulfiqar Ali Khan’s most recent stay of 
execution expired on
31 March and he is at risk of imminent execution for murder. According to his 
current lawyers, he
committed the crime in self-defense and received an unfair trial.

View the full Urgent Action, including case information, addresses and sample 
messages, here.

Death row prisoner, Zulfiqar Ali Khan, is set to be executed on 6 May. He was 
arrested and charged
with murder on 14 April 1998, and sentenced to death by an Anti-Terrorism Court 
in Rawalpindi,
Punjab province, in 1999. His death sentence was upheld by the High Court in 
2001, and his
subsequent appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court in 2008, following a 
review. He is currently
being detained in Adiala Central Jail in the city of Rawalpindi.

According to his current lawyers, Zulfiqar Ali Khan committed the crime of 
murder in self-defense
and received an unfair trial. The then state-appointed lawyer reportedly failed 
to challenge
falsified witness statements that were used by the prosecution against him.

Zulfiqar Ali Khan has spent 16 years on death row, the equivalent of a life 
sentence in Pakistan.
During this period, he has received over 15 execution warrants, meaning that he 
has had to mentally
prepare each time to be executed by a firing squad. The severe anxiety felt 
when facing execution
can amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

During his time in prison he has educated himself and obtained 48 degrees and 
certificates. He has
also educated over 400 fellow prisoners: 27 of his students in prison have 
earned university
degrees, 48 have graduated from college and 51 obtained matriculation 
certificates.

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 completely lifting the moratorium for all capital crimes and has threatened 
to send up to 1,000
prisoners to the gallows who have exhausted all legal options and their mercy 
petitions. In total,
101 prisoners have been executed since the moratorium was lifted.

View the full Urgent Action here.

Name: Zulfiqar Ali Khan (m)
Issues: Imminent execution, Death penalty, Unfair trial Further information on 
UA: 302/08 (31 October 2008) and update (1 May 2009)
Issue Date: 30 April 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 302/08" 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 sending appeals
after the below date. This is the second update of UA 302/08. Further 
information:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/ASA33/003/2009/en/. 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 Urdu, English or your own language:
  *  Urging the authorities to halt the execution of Zulfiqar Ali Khan 
immediately, 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 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;
  *  Urging the authorities to commute all existing death sentences.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 11 JUNE 2015 TO:

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



Prime Minister of Pakistan
Mr 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



And copies to:
Chief Minister of Punjab
Mr Shahbaz Sharif
Chief Minister Secretariat
7-Club Road
GOR-I, Lahore
Pakistan
Fax: 011 92 42 9920 4915 / 011 92 42 9920 3224

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

Please share widely with your networks: http://bit.ly/1EUu8UK

We encourage you to share Urgent Actions with your friends and colleagues! When 
you share with your
networks, instead of forwarding the original email, please use the "Forward 
this email to a friend"
link found at the very bottom of this email. Thank you for your activism!

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T. 202.509.8193 │ F. 202.509.8193 │E. uan at aiusa.org │amnestyusa.org/urgent