LAHORE (APP) – The Supreme Court (SC) and Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday acquitted five death row prisoners, local media reported. The death warrant of another convict was also suspended.
The Rawalpindi bench of LHC acquitted four prisoners accused of a 2002 suicide attack on an Imambargah in which 11 people were killed and 19 were injured. They were sentenced to death on December 9, 2009.
Malik Rafiq, the advocate of the four men, had filed an application in the LHC, saying that the trial was unfair and his clients were subjected to injustice.
The high court bench said the death sentences were not based on justice and ordered the release of Habibullah, Fazal Hameed, Tahir Hussain and Naseer Ahmed.
The investigation officer at the time, Raja Saqlain, was also shot dead in an attempt to allegedly weaken the investigation. A three member bench, headed by SC’s Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, also acquitted one death row prisoner. The convict, Mazhar Hussain, was given a death sentence by an anti terrorism court (ATC) in a kidnapping-for-ransom case in 2012. A divisional bench headed by Justice Abdul Sami Khan and Justice Sadiq Ali Khan suspended the death warrant of a prisoner who was scheduled to be hanged on January 14. Brother of accused Muhammad Faiz moved the court, stating that Faiz’s mercy plea was pending in Supreme Court, hence his death warrant could not be issued.
