Pakistan: 2 sentenced to death in child kidnap, murder case

An antiterrorism court on Saturday awarded death sentence to 2 men for kidnapping and killing a child over non-payment of ransom.

4 accused — Abdul Ghaffar Brohi, Abdullah Magsi, Ali Magsi alias Ali Dino and Zahid Hussain Gopang — were charged with kidnapping 4 1/2-year-old Ammar Hussain Jatoi within the remit of the Waleed police station, Larkana in 2012.

On Saturday, the ATC-II judge, who conducted the trial in the judicial complex inside the central prison, pronounced his verdict reserved after recording evidence and final arguments.

The ATC hands down life imprisonment to 2 more accused

The judge noted that the prosecution successfully proved the allegations of kidnapping for ransom against the accused Abdul Ghaffar Brohi and Abdullah Magsi and handed down capital punishment to them.

The judge awarded life imprisonment to accused Ali Magsi and Zahid Hussain and also ordered them to pay Rs500,000 each to the legal heirs of the victim as compensation.

The judge further sentenced them to four-year imprisonment for possessing illicit arms and ammunition. However, all the sentences shall run concurrently.

According to the prosecution, the accused abducted the child, a student of nursery class, when he was playing outside his house in the Sheikh Zayed Colony on March 9, 2012 and drove him away in a car.

Later, they demanded a ransom of Rs5 million for his safe release. But, his body was found from an abandoned house as the family failed to pay the ransom, the prosecution added. The accused were arrested and led the police to the recovery of the child’s body.

Trial transferred due to political interference

On April 25, 2012 the Sindh High Court (SHC) had ordered transfer of the case from ATC Larkana to an ATC in Karachi after complainant Asfar Hussain Jatoi moved an application alleging that then ministers belonging to the Pakistan Peoples Party were influencing the investigation to favour the accused persons.

“All the prosecution witnesses (were) examined; (they) supported that on Feb 13, 2012 the dead body of the child was recovered at the pointation of accused persons, mashirnama was prepared as per direction of Assistant Superintendent of Police, but nothing was brought on record,” the judge wrote in the order.

He added: “In such circumstances the case was transferred to Karachi due to involvement of three Ministers of political party.”

The verdict added that “the mashirnama of the (victim’s) body was prepared, but it was destroyed on political grounds and that record is available in his report under the Section 168 of the Criminal Procedure Code”.

Earlier, special public prosecutor Nazeer Ahmed Bhangwar submitted that from the very beginning of the investigation the police were favouring the accused persons and had tried to hide the facts.

He added that two brothers-in-law of the complainant had seen the four accused persons with arms in the car, as they were taking away the child and had informed the complainant about the incident.

The prosecutor argued that accused Abdullah Magsi had made a phone call to the complainant demanding Rs5m ransom for the safe release of his kidnapped son, but agreed on Rs3.5m. While the complainant was arranging the money the same accused called him the next day and asked him to pick the body of his kidnapped son from a house in Yar Mohammad Colony on March 13, 2013, he added.

He contended that the accused persons were arrested on March 13, 2013 and on their information the police had recovered the body, but the police showed their arrest on March 15 to create doubts and favour the accused. He argued that the evidence fully corroborated the prosecution’s case and pleaded to the court to convict them in accordance with the law.

Advocate Altaf Hussain for the complainant said that the accused persons were influential and politically involved, therefore, under their influence the police did not investigate the case honestly. He added that the complainant had to move an application for re-investigation, which was conducted after great difficulty.

On the other hand, defence counsel Wazeer Hussain Khoso and Safdar Ali Bhutto argued that their clients were innocent, but the police framed them in a false and fabricated case with mala fide intentions.

5 cases under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 365-A (kidnapping for ransom), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offenders) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 (acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 and Section 13-E of the Arms Ordinance were registered at the Waleed police station.

Source: dawn.com, Staff, September 29, 2019

⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

Florida executes Michael Tanzi

Florida on Tuesday executed a death row inmate described by one local detective as a "fledgling serial killer" for the murder of a beloved Miami Herald employee. Florida executed Michael Tanzi on Tuesday, 25 years after the murder of beloved Miami Herald employee Janet Acosta, who was attacked in broad daylight on her lunch break in 2000. Michael Tanzi, 48, was executed by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison in Raiford and pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. ET.

South Carolina executes Mikal Mahdi

Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers A man facing the death penalty for committing two murders was executed by firing squad on Friday, the second such execution in the US state of South Carolina this year. Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers, an off-duty police officer, and the murder of a convenience store employee three days earlier. According to a statement from the prison, "the execution was performed by a three-person firing squad at 6:01 pm (2201 GMT)," with Mahdi pronounced dead four minutes later.

Afghanistan | Four men publicly executed by Taliban with relatives of victims shooting them 'six or seven times' at sport stadium

Four men have been publicly executed by the Taliban, with relatives of their victims shooting them several times in front of spectators at a sport stadium. Two men were shot around six to seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the centre of Afghanistan's Badghis province, witnesses told an AFP journalist in the city. The men had been 'sentenced to retaliatory punishment' for shooting other men, after their cases were 'examined very precisely and repeatedly', the statement said. 'The families of the victims were offered amnesty and peace but they refused.'

USA | Why the firing squad may be making a comeback

South Carolina plans to execute Mikal Mahdi on Friday for the murder of a police officer, draping a hood over his head and firing three bullets into his heart. The choice to die by firing squad – rather than lethal injection or the electric chair – was Mahdi’s own, his attorney said last month: “Faced with barbaric and inhumane choices, Mikal Mahdi has chosen the lesser of three evils.” If it proceeds, Mahdi’s execution would be the latest in a recent string of events that have put the spotlight on the firing squad as a handful of US death penalty states explore alternatives to lethal injection, by far the nation’s dominant execution method.

I spent 16 years in solitary in South Carolina. This is what it did to me. | Opinion

South Carolinian Randy Poindexter writes about the effects 16 years of solitary confinement had on him ahead of South Carolina’s planned execution of Mikal Mahdi , who spent months in solitary as a young man. For 16 years, I lived in a concrete cell. Twenty-three hours a day, every day, for more than 3,000 days, South Carolina kept me in solitary confinement. I was a young man before I was sent to solitary — angry, untreated and unwell. I made mistakes. But I wasn’t sentenced to madness. That’s what solitary did to me. My mental health worsened with each passing day. At first, paranoia and depression set in. Then, hallucinations and self-mutilation. I talked to people who weren’t there. I cut myself to feel something besides despair. I could do nothing as four of my friends and fellow prisoners took their own lives rather than endure another day of torturous isolation.

South Carolina | Man who ambushed off-duty cop to face firing squad in second execution of its kind

Mikal Mahdi, 48, who was found guilty of killing an off-duty police officer and a convenience store worker, is the second inmate scheduled to executed by South Carolina's new firing squad A murderer who ambushed and shot an off duty police officer eight times before burning his body in a killing spree is set to become the second person to die by firing squad. South Carolina's highest court has rejected the last major appeal from Mikal Mahdi, 41, who is to be put to death with three bullets to the heart at 6pm on April 11 at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia. Mahdi's lawyers said his original lawyers put on a shallow case trying to spare his life that didn't call on relatives, teachers or people who knew him and ignored the impact of weeks spent in solitary confinement in prison as a teen.

Louisiana | Lawyers of Jessie Hoffman speak about their final moments before execution

As Louisiana prepared its first execution in 15 years, a team of lawyers from Loyola Law were working to save Jessie Hoffman’s life. “I was a young lawyer three years out of law school, and Jessie was almost finished with his appeals at that time, and my boss told me we needed to file something for Jessie because he’s in danger of being executed,” Kappel said. Kappel and her boss came up with a civil lawsuit to file that said since they wouldn’t give him a protocol for his execution, he was being deprived of due process, and the lawsuit was in the legal process for the next 10 years.

Lethal Injection, Electric Chair, or Firing Squad? An Inhumane Decision for Death Row Prisoners

South Carolina resumed executions with the firing squad killing of Brad Sigmon last month. Mikal Madhi’s execution date is days away. The curtain shrieked as it was yanked open to reveal a 67-year-old man tied to a chair. His arms were pulled uncomfortably behind his back. The red bull’s-eye target on his chest rose and fell as he desperately attempted to still his breathing. The man, Brad Sigmon, smiled at his attorney, Bo King, seated in the front row before guards placed a black bag over his head. King said Sigmon appeared to be trying his best to put on a brave face for those who had come to bear witness.

Execution date set for prisoner transferred to Oklahoma to face death penalty

An inmate who was transferred to Oklahoma last month to face the death penalty now has an execution date. George John Hanson, also known as John Fitzgerald Hanson, is scheduled to die on June 12 for the 1999 murder of 77-year-old Mary Bowles. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday set the execution date. The state’s Pardon and Parole Board has a tentative date of May 7 for Hanson’s clemency hearing, executive director Tom Bates said.

Arizona | The cruelty of isolation: There’s nothing ‘humane’ about how we treat the condemned

On March 19, I served as a witness to the execution of a man named Aaron Gunches, Arizona’s first since 2022. During his time on death row, he begged for death and was ultimately granted what is likely more appropriately described as an emotionless state-assisted suicide. This experience has profoundly impacted me, leading to deep reflection on the nature of death, humanity, and the role we play in our final moments. When someone is in the end stages of life, we talk about hospice care, comfort, care, easing suffering and humane death. We strive for a “good death” — a peaceful transition. I’ve seen good ones, and I’ve seen bad, unplanned ones.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog