FEATURED POST

Communist Vietnam's secret death penalty conveyor belt: How country trails only China and Iran for 'astonishing' number of executions

Published
Image
Prisoners are dragged from their cells at 4am without warning to be given a lethal injection Vietnam's use of the death penalty has been thrust into the spotlight after a real estate tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to be executed in one of the biggest corruption cases in the country's history. Truong My Lan, a businesswoman who chaired a sprawling company that developed luxury apartments, hotels, offices and shopping malls, was arrested in 2022.

Pakistan: Musharraf death penalty annulled

Published
Former Pakistan Army Chief and ex-president General (retired) Pervez Musharraf
Special court that sentenced him to death is ‘unconstitutional’, rules the high court. Former Pakistan army chief was last month sentenced to death by a special court

Dubai: Former Pakistan Army Chief and ex-president General (retired) Pervez Musharraf has got relief on Monday by the Lahore High Court in the death penalty verdict against him.

The Lahore High Court has declared the formation of a special court — which heard the treason case against Musharraf and handed him a death sentence after finding him guilty of treason — as ‘unconstitutional’. It means that the special court’s death verdict to hang Musharraf by neck will not be implemented and the case will be heard all over again if it is pursued at all.

Not guilty of treason


The court also ruled that the amended Article 6 of the Constitution, under which Musharraf had been found guilty, could not be applied in the case ‘ex post facto’ (retrospectively).

Article 6 of the Constitution was modified through the 18th Amendment in 2010, while the case against Musharraf concerned events that happened before that, Geo TV reported.

The decision came in response to a petition filed by Musharraf challenging the formation of the special court for the high treason case against him.

Musharraf was handed the death penalty in December last year after being found guilty on five counts in a 2-1 majority verdict. Subsequently, Musharraf had approached the Lahore High Court with three petitions, filed earlier this month.

Musharraf's petition


The former president had challenged not only the conviction but also the formation of the special court that handed him the death penalty for high treason, as well as the complaint filed against him by the government of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif that resulted in the trial, Dawn news reported.

However, the court had only admitted the petitions challenging the formation of the special court and the complaint registered against the former president. Subsequently, hearings into the case had proceeded before a three-member bench of the high court in the provincial capital.

The bench, comprising Justice Syed Mazaher Ali Akbar Naqvi, Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti and Justice Chaudhry Masood Jahangi, announced the verdict.

Additional Attorney-General Ishtiaq Ahmad Khan told the court that the constitution of a special court to try Musharraf under Article 6 of the Constitution was not part of the agenda of federal cabinet meetings of the government of former premier Nawaz Sharif.

Special court 'unlawful'


“The special court was constituted without the formal approval of the cabinet,” Khan said in court. Khan also maintained that the charges filed against the former president were flimsy since, under the emergency powers of the executive, fundamental rights could be suspended.

Last week, a legal expert had told the court that the constitution of a special court to try former president Musharraf was not done according to the law. “The complaint filed against the former president was not filed through the right authority,” Barrister Ali Zafar had testified.

Musharraf was sentenced to death by a special court in Islamabad on December 17, 2019, six years after the trial started. The case was filed by the PML-N government against Musharraf for suspending the Constitution on November 3, 2007, when he imposed emergency in the country.

Special court verdict is void


According to both the federal government and Musharraf’s lawyer, after the high court’s ruling, the verdict issued by the special court stands voids.

Musharraf currently lives in Dubai and was sentenced in absentia as he was unable to appear the court because of his deteriorating health as he has to frequently visit the hospital for his medical treatment.

Source: gulfnews.com, Ashfaq Ahmed, January 13, 2020


⚑ | 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
Location: Pakistan
Related content:

Most Viewed (Last 7 Days)

Communist Vietnam's secret death penalty conveyor belt: How country trails only China and Iran for 'astonishing' number of executions

Published
Image
Prisoners are dragged from their cells at 4am without warning to be given a lethal injection Vietnam's use of the death penalty has been thrust into the spotlight after a real estate tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to be executed in one of the biggest corruption cases in the country's history. Truong My Lan, a businesswoman who chaired a sprawling company that developed luxury apartments, hotels, offices and shopping malls, was arrested in 2022.
Read more

Japan | Death-row inmates' lawsuit targeting same-day notifications of executions dismissed

Published
Image
The Osaka District Court on Monday dismissed a lawsuit by death row inmates that claimed same-day notifications of executions violate the Constitution — the first ruling of its kind. The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit against the government in hopes of sparking a wider discussion on the rights of death row prisoners. They also sought ¥22 million in compensation and plan to appeal to a higher court.
Read more

Texas | State district judge recommends overturning Melissa Lucio’s death sentence

Published
Image
In a rare joint statement, the district attorney and the defense agreed that prosecutors withheld evidence that could point to a Rio Grande Valley woman’s innocence in the death of her toddler. A district judge who previously presided over a woman’s capital murder case recommended last week that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturn Melissa Lucio's 2008 conviction after a district attorney’s office admitted that prosecutors withheld evidence from her defense.
Read more

Iran | Probable Child Offender and Child Bride, Husband Executed for Drug Charges

Published
Image
Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); April 15 2024: Marjan Hajizadeh and Esmail Hassaniani, a couple sentenced to death for drug-related charges in a joint case, were executed in Zanjan Central Prison.  Marjan is reported to have been 16 at the time of arrest, which IHRNGO is working to confirm. If verified, she will be the first child offender executed for drug charges since 2014. She was also a child bride forced into marriage.
Read more

U.S. Supreme Court to hear Arizona death penalty case that could redefine historic precedent

Published
Image
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments centering on an Arizona death row prisoner that could set new precedent to determining ineffective assistance of counsel.  A Mohave County Superior Court jury convicted Danny Lee Jones for the 1992 murders of Robert Weaver and his daughter Tisha, as well as the attempted murder of Weaver’s grandmother. A judge sentenced Jones to death for the two murders.
Read more

Bill Moves Forward to Prevent Use of Nitrogen Gas Asphyxiation in Louisiana Executions

Published
Image
There’s an effort underway, in the current legislative session in Baton Rouge, to reverse course on the controversial execution method with Senate Bill 430. When Louisiana legislators approved the use of nitrogen gas asphyxiation as an execution method during a second special legislative session in February, the move attracted national attention; not the least because it has only been used in the U.S. once. That’s when Alabama executed convicted killer Kenneth Eugene Smith on January 25th of this year. Now there’s an effort underway, in the current legislative session in Baton Rouge, to reverse course on the controversial execution method with Senate Bill 430.
Read more

Iraq postpones vote on bill including death penalty for same-sex acts

Published
Image
BAGHDAD, April 15 (Reuters) - Iraqi lawmakers postponed voting on Monday on a bill that includes the death penalty or life in prison for same-sex relations - a measure that diplomats from Western countries said could have serious consequences for Iraq's political and economic ties if it goes through. Parliament was in session on Monday, with the bill - an amendment to an anti-prostitution law - second on its agenda.
Read more

Alabama lawmakers reject bill which would allow some death row inmates to be resentenced

Published
Image
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) - An Alabama House committee rejected a bill that would have impacted sentences for dozens of death row inmates. The proposal would have required courts to resentence people sentenced to death by a judge who overrode a jury’s recommendation of life in prison. That practice was outlawed in 2017. Representative Chris England passionately argued it should be retroactively applied for more than 30 death row inmates who were sentenced to death over a jury’s recommendation.
Read more