Pakistan death row inmate's sentence commuted after 21 years
Iqbal was sentenced to death in Lahore in 1999 for killing a man when he was 17
Islamabad: Pakistani man who was sentenced to death in 1999 for a murder he was convicted of committing when he was a minor had his sentence commuted Tuesday.
Muhammad Iqbal was sentenced to death in Lahore in 1999 for killing a man when he was 17.
In 2000, Pakistan passed a law prohibiting the death sentence for minors.
"We commute the death sentence of the petitioner to imprisonment for life," the Lahore high court said in its ruling.
According to the Justice Project Pakistan (JPP) advocacy group, Iqbal's conviction was based on "dubious eyewitness testimonies, made even more problematic by the fact that the offence took place at 12:30 am, in a street with no lights."
In 2001, Pakistan's then president Pervez Musharraf issued a decree commuting the death penalties of dozens of minors to life in prison. Iqbal, however, was not included.
According to JPP, Pakistan executed six people in 2015 and 2016 who were minors at the time of the crime, and several more remain on death row.
"We are relieved by this decision, which we hope will set a precedent. But why did it take so long?" JPP spokesman Ali Haider Habib said.
Life sentences in Pakistan are usually for 25 years, but these can be reduced for good behaviour.