[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

July 10



PAKISTAN:

Death-row prisoner rescued after paying ransom


After 3 years on death row in Central Jail Adyala, Rawalpindi, Sajid Masih's 
death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He was released 15 years 
later in early July, 2015, after human activist who had been visiting him in 
prison requested the superintendent to pay his fine after completion of his 
life imprisonment.

Sajid and His brother Shakil awaited trail for more than 3 before being 
sentenced to death for murder in 1995 in Gujrat. Sajid was transferred to the 
notorious death row in Adayla Prison, Rawalpindi. There, he waited in a 
windowless, 2 x 2.5 m cell for his turn to be executed. He shared that space - 
its cardboard matrix on floor and single bucket toilet - with as many as 10 - 
15 other death row inmates. While on death row, Sajid witnessed numerous mass 
executions by hanging. People were executed on a monthly - sometimes weekly - 
basis especially under the last 2 tenure of the political and military ruler 
General Parvaiz Musharaf. Sajid also witnessed and have faced torture and other 
cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment on a regular basis. "It was like hell, 
we were undergoing both mental and physical torture," he said. He said he was 
spared from such treatment because his family and Rah e Nijat Ministries often 
visited him and other prisoners in the jail. Some of those who are not so lucky 
are still suffering others died from some infectious diseases which were 
rampant in the prison.

Despite his time on death row, Sajid does not feel resentment or want revenge. 
Religion and services in the Jail Church have changed my life, he said. Safder 
Chaudhry, Secretary General, Rah e Nijat Ministries said Pakistan should 
abolish the death penalty. He feels that Pakistan has lost a lot of skilful 
people due to the government???s death penalty policies; people who could have 
contributed to society but who were executed instead after sitting for years on 
death row. Both were happy when they visited me at my residence.

Sajid is one of many thousands of Pakistanis whose lives have been threatened 
by the death penalty. He was lucky to be spared when Lahore High Court has 
turned his death sentences to life imprisonment in 2003. Despite the democratic 
government which came into power in 2008 in the country under civilian ruler, 
the death penalty is still on and mandatory for certain criminal offences.

The European Union - EU repeatedly expressed concern over increasing executions 
in Pakistan and demanded of the government to reinstate the moratorium on the 
death penalty and fully respect all of its international obligations.

There are currently over 8,000 inmates on death row prisoners in Pakistan, 
according to the government statistics. There are national debates which 
highlighted how the population is divided over the issue. The abolitionists 
claimed that the justice system cannot deliver justice while rejectionists 
claim that death penalty deters crime and that it is part of religious-based 
legal systems.

A day-long discussion on "World Day against the Death Penalty" unanimously 
opposed a generalized application of the death penalty and was also in 
agreement that in over 2 dozen capital offences on the statute books the death 
penalty was not mandated by Islam. However the government decided to resume 
state-sanctioned executions after the tragic Army Public School massacre at the 
end of last year. Since then more hundred people have been hanged till death. 
Out of those, only few percent are being tried as terrorists, therefore, 
lifting the moratorium on the death penalty for all those convicted and given 
capital punishment has instigated heated controversy.

(source: Pakistan Christian Post)