Death Penalty News

Pakistan’s Supreme Court has indicated that the Government cannot execute mentally ill death-row prisoners such as Imdad Ali, who suffers from schizophrenia. At a hearing this morning, judges said that if Imdad Ali, who suffers from schizophrenia, can be proven to have been mentally ill at the time of his trial in 2001 then he must not be executed. They added that while Mr Ali remains mentally unfit, it would be “inappropriate” to hang him. Mr Ali, 50, has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Jail medical records presented at the Supreme Court hearing show that Imdad has been treated for mental illness for many years, and that a 2013 medical report concluded that he is “insane.” More recent medical reports, from September and October this year, have confirmed his illness, and a psychiatrist at his prison has deemed him “a treatment-resistant case.” Sentenced to death in 2002 over a shooting, Mr Ali has spent 14 years on Pakistan’s death row, including 3 years in t...

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has today ordered doctors to examine Imdad Ali, a death row inmate who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. Pakistan recently tried to hang Mr Ali despite having signed international treaties banning the execution of mentally ill prisoners. Although several doctors have already diagnosed Mr Ali with schizophrenia, judges ruled that a five strong panel of psychologists and psychiatrists must carry out a new mental health assessment of Imdad Ali. Punjab’s Advocate General appeared in person at the Court today and said that they had uncovered Mr Ali’s prison medical records from 2001. However, the Supreme Court refused to look at the government’s own records, saying that prison medical history ‘means nothing’. Judges asked Mr Ali’s lawyers to provide the Court with a list of competent doctors to conduct a fresh assessment. The move comes as the Supreme Court reviewed its previous controversial finding in Mr Ali’s case where it had said that...

Pakistan’s Supreme Court will rehear the death penalty case of a severely mentally ill man on Monday (14th). Imdad Ali was due to be hanged on 2 November until the Supreme Court issued a stay just days before he would have gone to the gallows. Mr Ali has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Recent prison medical assessments described Mr Ali as “insane”, and concluded that his is “a treatment-resistant case.” The execution of mentally ill people is illegal under Pakistani and international law. The Supreme Court had previously cleared the way for Mr Ali’s execution, saying controversially that schizophrenia was ‘not a mental illness’. However, on 31 October the Supreme Court postponed Mr Ali’s hanging after a fresh petition from his lawyers, and following an intervention in support of Mr Ali from the government of Punjab province, where he is held. The Punjab government's review petition said that the Supreme Court’s definition of schizophrenia “has resulted in a grave m...

The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the execution of Imdad Ali, a schizophrenic man convicted in 2002 of murdering a cleric. The hanging was postponed on the basis of Ali's mental illness. The court issued notices to the Advocate General Punjab, the Prosecutor General Punjab and the Attorney General, seeking their comments on the issue. The notices were issued in connection with a review petition submitted by Imdad Ali's wife. The apex court had already rejected a plea as his lawyers said Ali is unfit to be executed since he is unable to understand his crime and punishment. A 3-member bench headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali heard the case. Counsel for Ali's wife informed the court that the death warrant for Ali had been issued. However, he has not yet been executed. The hearing of the case will resume in the second week of November. While dismissing her appeal against the August 23 order of the Lahore High Court's Multan Bench, which upheld the sentence ...

Pakistan’s Supreme Court has stayed the execution of a severely mentally ill man who was due to be hanged this Wednesday (2nd). Imdad Ali has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Recent prison medical assessments have described Mr Ali as “insane”, and concluded that his is “a treatment-resistant case.” The execution of mentally ill people is illegal under Pakistani and international law, but despite this, the Pakistani authorities had scheduled Mr Ali’s hanging for this week. This morning, the Supreme Court postponed Mr Ali’s hanging after a fresh petition from his lawyers at the Justice Project Pakistan, and following an intervention in support of Mr Ali from the government of Punjab province, where he is held. In a rare move, the Court has now decided to review its own recent judgment, in which judges dismissed Mr Ali’s appeal and paved the way for his execution. The fresh hearing is set to take place in the second week of November. The news follows growing call...

Click here to sign Reprieve's online clemency petition. Over 60 lawyers from common-law countries around the world have urged Pakistan’s President to halt the execution of a severely mentally ill man next Wednesday (2nd November). A series of medical assessments have confirmed that death row prisoner Imdad Ali is “insane,” and a government psychiatrist who has been treating him for eight years has confirmed that there is “no doubt…that he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia.” Despite this, last week Pakistan’s ministry of the interior confirmed that the authorities plan to hang Mr Ali this Wednesday (2nd). Mr Ali’s lawyer at Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), Sarah Belal, has said that Mr Ali is unable to understand that he faces execution. In a letter sent to the President of Pakistan, Mamnoon Hussain, 65 lawyers who are experts on capital cases from the USA, UK, India, Singapore, Nigeria, Botswana and Malawi wrote that: "[We] note with some dismay the im...

Click here to sign Reprieve's online clemency petition Court had earlier ruled that schizophrenia was not an illness With hope in her eyes, the wife of a schizophrenic convict once again knocked the door of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, asking for a review petition before her husband's execution, which is scheduled to be held on November 2. Safia Bano, wife of the convict moved an early hearing application for her husband case on October 31. "Demand that stay for death execution petition may kindly be heard on an urgent basis on October 31 because if the application is not heard on the same day then the petition would become infructuous and the husband of the petitioner would be hanged on November 2 in the early morning," Bano stated in her application. Despite the pendency of review petition, a session court in Vehari issued the death warrant for Imdad Ali aged 50, who was awarded death penalty in 2001 over a shooting case. Imdad, the convicted, has s...

Click here to sign Reprieve's online clemency petition European Union politicians have warned that Pakistan’s preferential trade status with the EU could be under threat from an executions drive in the country that has seen over 400 people hanged since 2014. EU trade delegates are due to visit the country on Monday (31st) – two days before the scheduled hanging of a severely mentally ill prisoner. Officials from the EU who oversee Pakistan’s special ‘GSP plus’ trade status with Europe will visit Pakistan from Monday next week to assess whether the government has honoured its obligations under the scheme, which including abiding by certain human rights standards. The visit takes place in the week that Imdad Ali – a prisoner who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia – is to face execution, on Wednesday (2nd). Government psychiatrists have confirmed Mr Ali’s illness, concluding that he is “insane.” The execution of mentally ill people is prohibited under Pakistani and internati...

Concerns have been raised over wrongful executions in Pakistan, after two brothers who had already been hanged were found to be innocent. The news comes amid fears for a mentally ill prisoner who is due to be executed on Wednesday (2nd), in violation of Pakistani and international law.  The wife of Imdad Ali, a severely mentally ill man, has asked President Mamnoon Hussain to grant mercy to her husband before his scheduled hanging on Wednesday , but has had no response. Government psychiatrists have confirmed that Mr Ali suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. Mr Ali is held in isolation, and is unaware that he faces execution. Click here to sign Reprieve's online clemency petition. The execution of mentally ill people is prohibited under Pakistani and international law, and fears of a wrongful execution for Mr Ali have grown since a human rights committee in Pakistan's upper house of parliament highlighted yesterday that two brothers were recently acquitted after they had bee...

Click here to sign Reprieve's online clemency petition Imdad Ali lives, or exists, in Pakistan. He is on death row. He may not live much longer. Indeed, he very well may die, thrashing in the hangman's noose, as early as next Wednesday. [UPDATE: Since this was written, Imdad's execution date has been set for Wednesday, 2 November, 2016 - please join our urgent call on Pakistan's President to stop the hanging going ahead] On October 20th, the Supreme Court of Pakistan affirmed his death sentence. The Court used some odd language . He was, they wrote in the strange words of Pakistan capital cases, "awarded a death sentence by the trial court" (much as if he had received an OBE from Her Majesty). After this, a "black warrant" was issued authorising his execution. The question posed to the court was whether his long history of paranoid schizophrenia should spare him from the gallows. In the appeal, his lawyer asked - or "respectful...

New figures have shown that 94% of prisoners recently hanged in Pakistan had nothing to do with terrorism – throwing doubt on claims that an executions drive which began in the country nearly two years ago is designed to combat ‘terrorism.’ The figures, collated by human rights organizations Reprieve and the Justice Project Pakistan, show that since lifting its moratorium on executions in December 2014, Pakistan has hanged some 418 prisoners, overtaking Saudi Arabia to become the world’s third largest executing nation after China and Iran. Pakistani officials have repeatedly said that the executions drive is necessary to prevent terrorism; in July 2015, an aide to the Prime Minister told Reuters: “You've seen the number of terrorist attacks going down drastically… One of the reasons is fear. Fear of being executed.” However, today's figures show that the proportion of executed prisoners whose cases could reasonably be linked to terrorism is lower than ever. Since...

Authorities in Pakistan have handed down an execution warrant to a death-row prisoner who is severely mentally ill.  Pakistan's interior ministry today handed down a so-called ‘black warrant’ confirming that it plans to hang Imdad Ali, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, next Wednesday (2nd). Mr Ali was sentenced to death in 2008 over a shooting, following several years in which his family struggled to pay for medical treatment. Since then, a series of medical assessments have confirmed his illness, with one doctor describing him as “insane”, and saying that his condition is “chronic and disabling.” Despite this, last week saw Pakistan’s Supreme Court dismiss an appeal by Mr Ali’s lawyers, commenting that schizophrenia is “ not a mental disorder .” This afternoon, authorities at the jail where Mr Ali is held confirmed that a warrant has been issued for his execution on November 2nd.  The execution of mentally ill people is prohibited under Pakistani and int...

The recent furore which followed the Supreme Court judgment regarding schizophrenia is not without cause: The Court has concluded that since schizophrenia is "not a permanent mental disorder', it is "therefore, a recoverable disease, which, in all the cases, does not fall within the definition of 'mental disorder' as defined within the Mental Health Ordinance, 2001." This judgment was passed in a petition filed by death-row prisoner Imdad Ali's wife to delay his execution on the grounds that he was mentally ill and therefore be allowed time to get medical treatment to be able to prepare his will. SC upholds death penalty for mentally ill man Ali, from Burewala district of southern Punjab, was awarded death sentence in 2002 in a murder case. The latest petition must be distinguished from his earlier appeal against the death sentence which was dismissed by the Supreme Court in October 2015 and the mercy petition which was dismissed by the Pre...