July 23
PAKISTAN:
LHC stops execution scheduled for Tuesday
The Lahore High Court (LHC) has accepted a revision petition by a death
convict Muhammad Basharat, who was going to be executed on July 26
(Tuesday), and halted his execution. The court directed the Jhelum
district and sessions judge to determine the age of the convict at the
time he had committed the murder by a medical examination.
The LHC Rawalpindi Bench said that the determination of the age of the
accused was a condition precedent under the Juvenile Justice System
Ordinance of 2000.
Arshad Mehmood, an official of the Democratic Commission for Human
Development (DCHD), a non-government organisation, said that Basharats
case would be a test as there were so many death convicts who were
juveniles at the time they had committed an offence and presidential
remission under the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance of 2000 was
extendable to them if they could establish that they were minor at that
time.
The Legal Aid Cell of the DCHD persuaded a death convict Sikandar Hayat to
apply to the trial court for determination of his age. The trial court
refused to interfere as the Supreme Court had finally decided the matter,
confirming the death conviction. Hayat then moved the LHC, which remanded
the case to the trial court in February 2004 for determination of the age
of the accused at the time of the commission of the offence.
Basharat made an application to the Jhelum sessions judge, which was
dismissed without a medical examination. Basharat then filed a revision
petition with the LHC, which declared that age determination through
medical examination was a must.
(source: Daily Times)
LIBYA:
4 EGYPTIANS, 2 TURKS EXECUTED
The Arab Centre for the Independence of the Judiciary and Legal Council,
an Egyptian human rights group, said on July 18 that Libyan authorities
had recently executed 4 Egyptians on criminal charges. The trial of the 4
Egyptians lacked guarantee for fair trial, they added. The centre pleaded
with the Egyptian government, the Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi and his
son, Seif el-Islam Gaddafi to intervene to save the lives of another 15
Egyptians reported to be on death row in Libya.
The centre did not mention the names of the Egyptians sentenced to death
or give any details regarding the cases for which they were sentenced.
On July 14 2 Turkish citizens were executed in Libya, the Turkish Foreign
Ministry said.
"Selim Aslan and Yunus Ozkan were sentenced to death in Libya as they were
accused of committing murder in 1995. We express condolences to their
families," the Ministry said in a written statement.
Turkey had made great efforts at all levels both in Tripoli and in Ankara
to prevent the execution of Aslan and Ozkan due to humanitarian
considerations, the Ministry noted. "Despite all the efforts --of the
Foreign Ministry, the Justice Ministry, the Prime Minister and the Justice
Minister-- the execution of the two Turkish citizens doesn't befit the
existing relations between Turkey and Libya," the Ministry indicated.
The last recorded executions were those of 8 men out to death in January
1997. Colonel Miftah Qarrum al-Wirfalli, 5 other senior army officers and
two civilians were put to death. They had been arrested in relation to an
army uprising in 1993 and accused of espionage in favour of the United
States and of belonging to the National Front for the Salvation of Libya,
an opposition group in exile.
(source: Hands Off Cain)
