Source: Coconuts KL (2 November 2021)
https://coconuts.co/kl/news/20000-plead-for-presidential-pardon-over-malaysian-man-on-death-row/
Nearly 20,000 people have signed an online petition pleading to Singapore President Halimah Yacob for clemency over an intellectually-disabled Malaysian man on death row.
Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam was 21 when he was arrested in Singapore in 2009 and subsequently convicted for trafficking 42.72g of diamorphine, a narcotic analgesic used to treat severe pain. Now 33, Nagaenthran reportedly suffers from ADHD and has a very low IQ of 69.
He faces imminent execution on Nov. 10.
His family was informed of the scheduled hanging two weeks ago, according to Singaporean activist-journalist Kirsten Han, who said that she has also been assisting the family with travel arrangements so that they can bid him farewell.
“Given that Nagaenthran is intellectually disabled; committed a non-violent crime; and was allegedly coerced by assaults and threats, we sincerely appeal for President Halimah Yacob to uphold Singapore’s commitment to the [United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities] by pardoning Nagaenthran’s death sentence,” the petition set up Thursday by human rights advocate Olivia Seow said. The petition also said that the Singapore justice system had failed to protect people with disabilities.
Those who commit crimes related to more than a dozen offenses including kidnapping, murder, and drug trafficking may be sentenced to death in Singapore, with exemptions to those under 18 and pregnant.
Rights groups such as Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, or ADPAN, and Malaysia’s Lawyers For Liberty have condemned the Singapore government’s decision to execute Nagaenthran.
“The execution of any person with mental or intellectual disabilities is extremely unconscionable and reprehensible. The person would be unlikely to have the appropriate capacity to stand trial or even appreciate the severity of their predicaments,” ADPAN executive coordinator Dobby Chew wrote Friday.
Lawyers For Liberty advisor N Surendran said in a statement: “No civilized nation should resort to hanging the mentally disabled.”
The human rights group also urged the Malaysian authorities to save Nagaenthran from the gallows.
Showing posts with label disability. Show all posts
Showing posts with label disability. Show all posts
Tuesday, 2 November 2021
Tuesday, 17 April 2018
Pakistan operating a blanket policy of refusing all mercy petitions
Source: Daily Times (12 April 2018)
https://dailytimes.com.pk/226884/pakistan-operating-a-blanket-policy-of-refusing-all-mercy-petitions/
ISLAMABAD: Chaudhry Shafique, Commissioner from the National Commission on Human Rights stated that the clemency process in Pakistan is deficient, and recommended that improvements be made to align it with the country’s constitutional and international human rights obligations.
Speaking at the launch of JPP’s latest report No Mercy: A Report on Clemency for Death Row Prisoners in Pakistan, Mr Shafique added “The President’s power of mercy is critical for ensuring justice under Pakistan’s criminal justice system.”
He stated that at a hearing at the Senate Committee on Human Rights last month, it was recommended that the NCHR, Ministry of Law and Justice, Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Human Rights, must examine the petitons before sending it to the President.
The Canadian High Commissioner to Pakistan Mr Perry Calderwood also delivered his comments on the report saying that, “Canada opposes the death penalty in all cases, everywhere and we encourage the abolition of the death penalty internationally.” He added that, “The debate on capital punishment in Pakistan occurs in a global context, but it is also local and specific to this country. It is a debate led by Pakistani citizens.”
No Mercy finds that in the three years since the moratorium on the death penalty was lifted, the Government of Pakistan has executed nearly 500 prisoners. Although the President of Pakistan possessed the constitutional authority to pardon death row defendants under Article 45 of the Constitution, in practice, such petitions have been consistently denied since Dec. 2014, therefore operating under a blanket policy even for cases with strong evidence of humanitarian abuses and violations.
According to the Ministry of Interior, the President’s office rejected 513 mercy petitions of condemned prisoners over the last five years, 444 of which were in the first fifteen months after the resumption of executions in Dec. 2014.
This is particularly alarming given that the Interior Ministry has also informally confirmed that the Government of Pakistan has a de facto policy in place to summarily reject all pleas of mercy.
83 percent of all executions and 89 percent of all death sentences handed out since Dec. 2014 have been in Punjab. Out of approximately 3,723 prisoners awaiting execution, mercy petitions of 41 (including 1 woman) have been rejected as of July 2017. 382 prisoners have been executed in Punjab since Dec. 2014.
This staggering figure could soon include paraplegic death row prisoner Abdul Basit, mentally ill Imdad Ali or even known juvenile offender Muhammad Iqbal. Pakistani citizen Zulfiqar Ali also continues to languish on death row in Indonesia. Their death sentences, direct results of a systemic flaws, may only be overturned under the right to seek Presidential pardon.
Mercy petitions of 74 prisoners remain pending with the President of Pakistan.
The cases examined in the report illustrate the systemic problems that Pakistan’s criminal justice system is mired in. Given these procedural failings, it is imperative that individuals on death row be provided with a fair chance to obtain clemency, and to introduce new and potentially exculpatory evidence.
The report can be found on http://www.jpp.org.pk/report/no-mercy-a-report-on-clemency-for-death-row-prisoners-in-pakistan/
Sarah Belal, Executive Director, JustIce Project Pakistan adds: “The right to seek pardon belongs to the people and so is reposed in the highest dignitary of the State. It is enshrined in our constitution, and that the Supreme Court has deemed this power unfettered. As citizens, death row prisoners have the unqualified right to seek pardon, and the Presidency has an obligation to consider their petitions on merit and not to summarily reject them. Pardoning the most vulnerable prisoners, whose stories we have shared today, would be a critical step to demonstrate a meaningful application of this responsibility.”
https://dailytimes.com.pk/226884/pakistan-operating-a-blanket-policy-of-refusing-all-mercy-petitions/
ISLAMABAD: Chaudhry Shafique, Commissioner from the National Commission on Human Rights stated that the clemency process in Pakistan is deficient, and recommended that improvements be made to align it with the country’s constitutional and international human rights obligations.
Speaking at the launch of JPP’s latest report No Mercy: A Report on Clemency for Death Row Prisoners in Pakistan, Mr Shafique added “The President’s power of mercy is critical for ensuring justice under Pakistan’s criminal justice system.”
He stated that at a hearing at the Senate Committee on Human Rights last month, it was recommended that the NCHR, Ministry of Law and Justice, Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Human Rights, must examine the petitons before sending it to the President.
The Canadian High Commissioner to Pakistan Mr Perry Calderwood also delivered his comments on the report saying that, “Canada opposes the death penalty in all cases, everywhere and we encourage the abolition of the death penalty internationally.” He added that, “The debate on capital punishment in Pakistan occurs in a global context, but it is also local and specific to this country. It is a debate led by Pakistani citizens.”
No Mercy finds that in the three years since the moratorium on the death penalty was lifted, the Government of Pakistan has executed nearly 500 prisoners. Although the President of Pakistan possessed the constitutional authority to pardon death row defendants under Article 45 of the Constitution, in practice, such petitions have been consistently denied since Dec. 2014, therefore operating under a blanket policy even for cases with strong evidence of humanitarian abuses and violations.
According to the Ministry of Interior, the President’s office rejected 513 mercy petitions of condemned prisoners over the last five years, 444 of which were in the first fifteen months after the resumption of executions in Dec. 2014.
This is particularly alarming given that the Interior Ministry has also informally confirmed that the Government of Pakistan has a de facto policy in place to summarily reject all pleas of mercy.
83 percent of all executions and 89 percent of all death sentences handed out since Dec. 2014 have been in Punjab. Out of approximately 3,723 prisoners awaiting execution, mercy petitions of 41 (including 1 woman) have been rejected as of July 2017. 382 prisoners have been executed in Punjab since Dec. 2014.
This staggering figure could soon include paraplegic death row prisoner Abdul Basit, mentally ill Imdad Ali or even known juvenile offender Muhammad Iqbal. Pakistani citizen Zulfiqar Ali also continues to languish on death row in Indonesia. Their death sentences, direct results of a systemic flaws, may only be overturned under the right to seek Presidential pardon.
Mercy petitions of 74 prisoners remain pending with the President of Pakistan.
The cases examined in the report illustrate the systemic problems that Pakistan’s criminal justice system is mired in. Given these procedural failings, it is imperative that individuals on death row be provided with a fair chance to obtain clemency, and to introduce new and potentially exculpatory evidence.
The report can be found on http://www.jpp.org.pk/report/no-mercy-a-report-on-clemency-for-death-row-prisoners-in-pakistan/
Sarah Belal, Executive Director, JustIce Project Pakistan adds: “The right to seek pardon belongs to the people and so is reposed in the highest dignitary of the State. It is enshrined in our constitution, and that the Supreme Court has deemed this power unfettered. As citizens, death row prisoners have the unqualified right to seek pardon, and the Presidency has an obligation to consider their petitions on merit and not to summarily reject them. Pardoning the most vulnerable prisoners, whose stories we have shared today, would be a critical step to demonstrate a meaningful application of this responsibility.”
Labels:
clemency,
disability,
mercy,
Pakistan,
pardon
Thursday, 9 June 2016
Pakistan executions pass 400 despite international protests over re-introduction of the death penalty
Source: The Independent (8 June 2016)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/pakistan-executions-pass-400-despite-international-protests-over-re-introduction-of-the-death-a7070656.html
The number of people executed in Pakistan since it resumed hangings just 18 months ago is feared to have passed 400.
The government has ignored international appeals to reinstate a moratorium on the death penalty, which was removed following a Taliban terror attack that saw 130 children massacred at a school in Peshawar in 2014.
Pakistan has since become one of the most prolific users of the death penalty in the world, executing 404 people so far according to research by Reprieve.
The human rights organisation warned that the figure could be higher as not all executions may be recorded.
Maya Foa, director of its death penalty team, said: “That Pakistan has gone from a non-executing state to executing over 400 people in little over 18 months is truly shocking.
“The Pakistani Government seems indifferent to the plight of the many prisoners who should not even be on death row – those arrested as children, or suffering from severe physical or mental illnesses.
“They need to put a halt to all executions until a full review of this chaotic capital punishment system can be carried out.”
More than 70 hangings have taken place this year, putting Pakistan among the top countries for the death penalty behind China, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Among a number of controversial cases is that of Abdul Basit, a paralysed prisoner who remains on death row despite concerns that there is no way to execute him that would not carry a high risk of prolonged suffering.
He told his lawyers that during a previous attempt to hang him, the prison authorities had built a slope or ramp up to the gallows in order to take him to be hanged in his wheelchair.
As in Saudi Arabia, convicts who were arrested under the age of 18 are among those awaiting executions, in violation of international law.
Pakistan was among the human rights priority countries highlighted by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in a recent report, which said the British Government had been “pressing” ministers in Islamabad on a number of issues.
The 325 people executed in 2015 may have been the highest number in Pakistani history, the report said, while an estimated 8,000 people remain on death row.
The de facto moratorium on the death penalty was lifted first for terrorism in December 2014 and then the following March for all capital crimes, including rape, adultery and murder.
“There were serious concerns over Pakistan’s use of the death penalty, including fair trial issues and the execution of persons who were alleged to have been minors at the time of the offence,” the FCO said.
“At the highest level, the UK made clear to Pakistan its opposition to the death penalty. We urged Pakistan to reinstate the moratorium and comply with international commitments.”
The number of people executed in Pakistan since it resumed hangings just 18 months ago is feared to have passed 400.
The government has ignored international appeals to reinstate a moratorium on the death penalty, which was removed following a Taliban terror attack that saw 130 children massacred at a school in Peshawar in 2014.
Pakistan has since become one of the most prolific users of the death penalty in the world, executing 404 people so far according to research by Reprieve.
The human rights organisation warned that the figure could be higher as not all executions may be recorded.
Maya Foa, director of its death penalty team, said: “That Pakistan has gone from a non-executing state to executing over 400 people in little over 18 months is truly shocking.
“The Pakistani Government seems indifferent to the plight of the many prisoners who should not even be on death row – those arrested as children, or suffering from severe physical or mental illnesses.
“They need to put a halt to all executions until a full review of this chaotic capital punishment system can be carried out.”
More than 70 hangings have taken place this year, putting Pakistan among the top countries for the death penalty behind China, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Among a number of controversial cases is that of Abdul Basit, a paralysed prisoner who remains on death row despite concerns that there is no way to execute him that would not carry a high risk of prolonged suffering.
He told his lawyers that during a previous attempt to hang him, the prison authorities had built a slope or ramp up to the gallows in order to take him to be hanged in his wheelchair.
As in Saudi Arabia, convicts who were arrested under the age of 18 are among those awaiting executions, in violation of international law.
Pakistan was among the human rights priority countries highlighted by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in a recent report, which said the British Government had been “pressing” ministers in Islamabad on a number of issues.
The 325 people executed in 2015 may have been the highest number in Pakistani history, the report said, while an estimated 8,000 people remain on death row.
The de facto moratorium on the death penalty was lifted first for terrorism in December 2014 and then the following March for all capital crimes, including rape, adultery and murder.
“There were serious concerns over Pakistan’s use of the death penalty, including fair trial issues and the execution of persons who were alleged to have been minors at the time of the offence,” the FCO said.
“At the highest level, the UK made clear to Pakistan its opposition to the death penalty. We urged Pakistan to reinstate the moratorium and comply with international commitments.”
Labels:
disability,
hangings,
Pakistan
Sunday, 29 November 2015
Disabled Pakistani man's execution delayed for fourth time
Source: Gulf News (25 Nov 2015)
http://gulfnews.com/news/asia/pakistan/disabled-pakistani-man-s-execution-delayed-for-fourth-time-1.1626547
Islamabad: A disabled Pakistani murder convict was given a fourth stay of execution late Tuesday just hours before he was due to be hanged, as rights activists slammed Islamabad for a executions spree on track to see 300 deaths in under a year.
Abdul Basit, a paraplegic who was convicted of murder in 2009, was scheduled to be hung early Wednesday. His execution has already been harrowingly postponed several times after rights groups raised concerns about how a wheelchair-bound man would mount the scaffold.
The presidency issued a statement late Tuesday saying the execution had been delayed for two months while President Mamnoon Hussain ordered an inquiry into Abdul Basit's medical condition.
The statement said the president had vowed that "human rights will be upheld".
"We are very happy to hear the TV news that (the) president of Pakistan has stayed the execution," Abdul Basit's mother Nusrat Parveen said in response to the last minute delay.
"We also got confirmation from a jail staff," she said, adding that the family hoped the stay would be extended beyond two months.
Earlier, Abdul Basit's sister Asma Mazhar had issued a plea to the president to spare her brother. She said she had gone with her mother to see him on Tuesday for what they had believed was the last time, and found him "helpless and quiet".
She said he told them that authorities had come to measure his body and that it was an "awful moment".
Pakistan has executed 299 people since the death penalty was controversially reinstated following a Taliban mass killing at a school in Peshawar last December, according to Amnesty International.
"Pakistan will imminently have executed 300 people since it lifted a moratorium on executions, shamefully sealing its place among the world's worst executioners," it said in a statement.
Forty-five people were executed in October alone, Amnesty said, making it the deadliest month since the moratorium was lifted.
No official figures are available. The rights group Reprieve said on Tuesday that by its tally the number of executions has just passed 300, while other local activists said the figure was below 260.
"Pakistan's ongoing zeal for executions is an affront to human rights and the global trend against the death penalty," David Griffiths, Amnesty's South Asia research director, said in a statement.
"Even if the authorities stay the execution of Abdul Basit, a man with paraplegia, Pakistan is still executing people at a rate of almost one a day."
Pakistan ended a six-year moratorium on the death penalty last year as part of a terror crackdown after Taliban militants gunned down more than 150 people, most of them children, at an army-run school in the restive northwest.
The massacre shocked and outraged a country already scarred by nearly a decade of extremist attacks. Hangings were initially reinstated only for those convicted of terrorism, but in March they were extended to all capital offences.
Supporters argue that executions are the only effective way to deal with the scourge of militancy in the country.
But critics say the legal system is unjust, with rampant police torture and poor representation for victims during unfair trials, while the majority of those who are hanged are not convicted of terror charges.
There is no evidence the "relentless" executions have done anything to counter extremism in the country, Griffiths said in the Amnesty statement.
Recent research by the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies also suggests that death is no deterrent for militants who are "committed to dying for their cause".
The Amnesty figures suggest Pakistan is on track to become one of the world's top executioners in 2015.
In 2014 607 people were put to death in 22 countries, according to Amnesty, though that figure does not include China, where the number of executions is believed to be in the hundreds but is considered by authorities to be a state secret.
http://gulfnews.com/news/asia/pakistan/disabled-pakistani-man-s-execution-delayed-for-fourth-time-1.1626547
Islamabad: A disabled Pakistani murder convict was given a fourth stay of execution late Tuesday just hours before he was due to be hanged, as rights activists slammed Islamabad for a executions spree on track to see 300 deaths in under a year.
Abdul Basit, a paraplegic who was convicted of murder in 2009, was scheduled to be hung early Wednesday. His execution has already been harrowingly postponed several times after rights groups raised concerns about how a wheelchair-bound man would mount the scaffold.
The presidency issued a statement late Tuesday saying the execution had been delayed for two months while President Mamnoon Hussain ordered an inquiry into Abdul Basit's medical condition.
The statement said the president had vowed that "human rights will be upheld".
"We are very happy to hear the TV news that (the) president of Pakistan has stayed the execution," Abdul Basit's mother Nusrat Parveen said in response to the last minute delay.
"We also got confirmation from a jail staff," she said, adding that the family hoped the stay would be extended beyond two months.
Earlier, Abdul Basit's sister Asma Mazhar had issued a plea to the president to spare her brother. She said she had gone with her mother to see him on Tuesday for what they had believed was the last time, and found him "helpless and quiet".
She said he told them that authorities had come to measure his body and that it was an "awful moment".
Pakistan has executed 299 people since the death penalty was controversially reinstated following a Taliban mass killing at a school in Peshawar last December, according to Amnesty International.
"Pakistan will imminently have executed 300 people since it lifted a moratorium on executions, shamefully sealing its place among the world's worst executioners," it said in a statement.
Forty-five people were executed in October alone, Amnesty said, making it the deadliest month since the moratorium was lifted.
No official figures are available. The rights group Reprieve said on Tuesday that by its tally the number of executions has just passed 300, while other local activists said the figure was below 260.
"Pakistan's ongoing zeal for executions is an affront to human rights and the global trend against the death penalty," David Griffiths, Amnesty's South Asia research director, said in a statement.
"Even if the authorities stay the execution of Abdul Basit, a man with paraplegia, Pakistan is still executing people at a rate of almost one a day."
Pakistan ended a six-year moratorium on the death penalty last year as part of a terror crackdown after Taliban militants gunned down more than 150 people, most of them children, at an army-run school in the restive northwest.
The massacre shocked and outraged a country already scarred by nearly a decade of extremist attacks. Hangings were initially reinstated only for those convicted of terrorism, but in March they were extended to all capital offences.
Supporters argue that executions are the only effective way to deal with the scourge of militancy in the country.
But critics say the legal system is unjust, with rampant police torture and poor representation for victims during unfair trials, while the majority of those who are hanged are not convicted of terror charges.
There is no evidence the "relentless" executions have done anything to counter extremism in the country, Griffiths said in the Amnesty statement.
Recent research by the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies also suggests that death is no deterrent for militants who are "committed to dying for their cause".
The Amnesty figures suggest Pakistan is on track to become one of the world's top executioners in 2015.
In 2014 607 people were put to death in 22 countries, according to Amnesty, though that figure does not include China, where the number of executions is believed to be in the hundreds but is considered by authorities to be a state secret.
Labels:
disability,
Pakistan
Thursday, 24 September 2015
Abdul Basit: Pakistan set to hang disabled man
Source: BBC News (21 September 2015)
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34318470
A paraplegic man on death row in Pakistan is set to hang on Tuesday without the authorities explaining how they will carry out the execution.
The capital punishment is due to take place despite fears over the absence of legal procedures for such a punishment.
Pakistan's prison guidelines require that a prisoner stand on the gallows in order to be hanged.
Abdul Basit, 43, is paralysed from the waist down and uses a wheelchair after becoming ill in prison.
He will become the 240th Pakistani to be executed since Pakistan reintroduced the death penalty in December 2014.
At the time, the government said it was a measure to combat terrorism after the Taliban massacred more than 150 people, most of them children, in a Peshawar school.
The condemned man was convicted six years ago of murder and was to have been hanged in Lahore last month - but this was postponed.
A court has now ordered the jail authorities to go ahead with the hanging, even though his mercy petition filed on 22 July before the president is still pending.
His lawyers argue that hanging him would constitute cruel and degrading treatment.
The prison guidelines do not cover the hanging of a paralysed person, campaigners say.
"[The] jail manual only provides for hanging as a method of execution, and lays down methods to calculate the right length of rope to ensure that hanging does not lead to protracted strangulation," Wassam Waheed, a spokesman for Justice Project Pakistan (JPP) told the BBC.
"The rules presume that the convict [can] walk up to the gallows, which is not possible in Abdul Basit's case."
A trial court issued a death warrant against Abdul Basit on Friday and ordered jail authorities to hang him on 22 September.
Both the Supreme Court and the Lahore High Court have given their consent to the execution.
The JPP has called on President Mamnoon Hussain to stop the execution and "show the world that we protect the lives of those most vulnerable in our society".
Rights groups say that there is a danger that the hanging could go wrong and end up being a breach of the prisoner's dignity - which is protected by Pakistani laws.
In a statement on Sunday the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) described the court order to hang Abdul Basit as an offence "against all norms of civilised justice" which would raise awkward questions about the Pakistani justice system and "indict the Pakistani state and society as brutal entities".
The HRCP also urged the president to stay the execution and grant him a reprieve.
Pakistan has the world's largest number of death row inmates, with more than 8,000 people reported to be awaiting execution.
It is on course to have one of the highest rates of executions in the world.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34318470
A paraplegic man on death row in Pakistan is set to hang on Tuesday without the authorities explaining how they will carry out the execution.
The capital punishment is due to take place despite fears over the absence of legal procedures for such a punishment.
Pakistan's prison guidelines require that a prisoner stand on the gallows in order to be hanged.
Abdul Basit, 43, is paralysed from the waist down and uses a wheelchair after becoming ill in prison.
He will become the 240th Pakistani to be executed since Pakistan reintroduced the death penalty in December 2014.
At the time, the government said it was a measure to combat terrorism after the Taliban massacred more than 150 people, most of them children, in a Peshawar school.
The condemned man was convicted six years ago of murder and was to have been hanged in Lahore last month - but this was postponed.
A court has now ordered the jail authorities to go ahead with the hanging, even though his mercy petition filed on 22 July before the president is still pending.
His lawyers argue that hanging him would constitute cruel and degrading treatment.
The prison guidelines do not cover the hanging of a paralysed person, campaigners say.
"[The] jail manual only provides for hanging as a method of execution, and lays down methods to calculate the right length of rope to ensure that hanging does not lead to protracted strangulation," Wassam Waheed, a spokesman for Justice Project Pakistan (JPP) told the BBC.
"The rules presume that the convict [can] walk up to the gallows, which is not possible in Abdul Basit's case."
A trial court issued a death warrant against Abdul Basit on Friday and ordered jail authorities to hang him on 22 September.
Both the Supreme Court and the Lahore High Court have given their consent to the execution.
The JPP has called on President Mamnoon Hussain to stop the execution and "show the world that we protect the lives of those most vulnerable in our society".
Rights groups say that there is a danger that the hanging could go wrong and end up being a breach of the prisoner's dignity - which is protected by Pakistani laws.
In a statement on Sunday the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) described the court order to hang Abdul Basit as an offence "against all norms of civilised justice" which would raise awkward questions about the Pakistani justice system and "indict the Pakistani state and society as brutal entities".
The HRCP also urged the president to stay the execution and grant him a reprieve.
Pakistan has the world's largest number of death row inmates, with more than 8,000 people reported to be awaiting execution.
It is on course to have one of the highest rates of executions in the world.
Labels:
disability,
Pakistan
Friday, 4 September 2015
Abdul Basit: Death row delay for Pakistan paraplegic
Source: BBC News (2 September 2015)
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34128116
Pakistani prison officials have missed Tuesday's court deadline to explain how they would hang a paraplegic man.
Abdul Basit is paralysed from the waist down and uses a wheelchair after an illness he contracted while in prison.
He was convicted six years ago of murder but maintains his innocence. He was to be hanged in Lahore last month but this was postponed. A petition for his pardon was dismissed.
Hanging him would constitute cruel and degrading treatment, his lawyers say.
They add that this is prohibited under Pakistani and international law.
Pakistan has executed more than 200 people since reintroducing the death penalty in December 2014.
At the time the government said it was a measure to combat terrorism after the Taliban massacred more than 150 people, most of them children, in a Peshawar school.
Pakistan's jail manual gives no instructions on how to execute disabled prisoners.
A high court judge had told prison officials they had until 1 September to come up with specific steps if they were to be allowed to proceed with the execution of Mr Basit.
The BBC's Shaimaa Khalil says Mr Basit remains on death row but his sentence has effectively been stayed until the jail authorities come up with a clear plan for how they will execute him.
Executions around the world
Pakistan has executed more than 200 people since December 2014, almost all of them this year
Figures for executions in other countries in 2015 are as yet largely unavailable
In August, Amnesty International said Saudi Arabia had executed 102 people in the first six months of 2015, compared with 90 in the whole of 2014
By the end of last year, the other countries with the highest number of reported executions were Iran: 289, Iraq: 61, USA: 35, and Sudan: 23
In 2013 the numbers were: Iran: 369, Iraq: 169, Saudi Arabia: 79, Somalia: 68, USA: 39
China and North Korea refuse to divulge information on the number of executions that take place within their borders
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34128116
Pakistani prison officials have missed Tuesday's court deadline to explain how they would hang a paraplegic man.
Abdul Basit is paralysed from the waist down and uses a wheelchair after an illness he contracted while in prison.
He was convicted six years ago of murder but maintains his innocence. He was to be hanged in Lahore last month but this was postponed. A petition for his pardon was dismissed.
Hanging him would constitute cruel and degrading treatment, his lawyers say.
They add that this is prohibited under Pakistani and international law.
Pakistan has executed more than 200 people since reintroducing the death penalty in December 2014.
At the time the government said it was a measure to combat terrorism after the Taliban massacred more than 150 people, most of them children, in a Peshawar school.
Pakistan's jail manual gives no instructions on how to execute disabled prisoners.
A high court judge had told prison officials they had until 1 September to come up with specific steps if they were to be allowed to proceed with the execution of Mr Basit.
The BBC's Shaimaa Khalil says Mr Basit remains on death row but his sentence has effectively been stayed until the jail authorities come up with a clear plan for how they will execute him.
Executions around the world
Pakistan has executed more than 200 people since December 2014, almost all of them this year
Figures for executions in other countries in 2015 are as yet largely unavailable
In August, Amnesty International said Saudi Arabia had executed 102 people in the first six months of 2015, compared with 90 in the whole of 2014
By the end of last year, the other countries with the highest number of reported executions were Iran: 289, Iraq: 61, USA: 35, and Sudan: 23
In 2013 the numbers were: Iran: 369, Iraq: 169, Saudi Arabia: 79, Somalia: 68, USA: 39
China and North Korea refuse to divulge information on the number of executions that take place within their borders
Labels:
disability,
hangings,
Pakistan
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