On June 1st of this year the life of a man who has spent half his life in prison will be extinguished in Pakistan. Mirza Tahir Hussain, a 36-year Pakistani-British dual citizen, will be hanged for the crime of murder. He will be hanged after an Islamic court in Pakistan found him guilty of murdering a taxi driver in 1988. He will be hanged after he was acquitted of all charges by the Pakistani High Court.
How can a man acquitted of murder by Pakistan’s High Court be hanged for murder by Pakistan’s Islamic court? Good question. The answer lies in Pakistan’s dueling judicial systems – one secular and one Islamic. If you are found innocent in one system, you can be tried in another. You get two for the price of one – Double Jeapardy knows no better home.
Amnesty International describes the facts of the case as follows:
Mirza Tahir Hussain was tried and convicted of murdering a taxi driver while travelling to the village of Bhubar from Rawalpindi, Punjab Province, on 17 December 1988. The taxi driver reportedly stopped the car and produced a gun, and Mirza Tahir Hussain, who was 18 years old at the time, was reportedly physically and sexually assaulted by the taxi driver. In the scuffle that followed, the gun went off, and the taxi driver was fatally injured.
Mirza Tahir Hussain was sentenced to death in 1989 at the Sessions Court in Islamabad. Following an appeal, this sentence was dismissed by the Lahore High Court, which noted discrepancies in the case. The case was returned to the Sessions Court where Mirza Tahir Hussain was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1994. Following a second appeal, the Lahore High Court then dismissed this sentence in 1996, and Mirza Tahir Hussain was acquitted of all charges against him.
A week later, Mirza Tahir Hussain’s case was referred to the Federal Shariat Court on charges from the original case, including robbery involving murder, which fall under Islamic offences against property law. The Federal Shariat Court’s duties include reviewing laws to ensure they conform with Islamic doctrine and dealing with appeals of cases tried under Islamic Law. The entire case against Mirza Tahir Hussain was reopened, and in 1998, he was sentenced to death by the Federal Shariat Court, despite their acknowledgment that no robbery had taken place due to the taxi being hired. The death penalty sentence by the Federal Shariat Court was based on a split two to one judgement, with the dissenting judge strongly recommending that Mirza Tahir Hussain be acquitted. Amnesty International believes that Mirza Tahir Hussain has not received a fair trial due to the contradictory statements of the different courts. Also, the Islamic provision under which he was tried requires that the death penalty should only be imposed if reliable eyewitness accounts or a confession to the court are submitted. In this case, neither was obtained.
The Washington Post also quotes the strong dissent by one of the judges in the Islamic court:
In August 1998, in a split 2-1 verdict, the Islamic court’s judges sentenced him to death again, although the legal provision he was tried under required a confession or witness to the crime. The prosecution had neither.
The dissenting judge, Abdul Waheed Siddiqui, gave a scathing assessment of the prosecution in a 59-page judgment. He described Hussain as "an innocent, raw youth not knowing the mischief and filth in which the police of this country is engrossed." He said police introduced false witnesses and "fabricated evidence in a shameless manner" against Hussein, who had no criminal record.
Mr. Hussain’s real crime was voluntarily surrendering to the police in the hopes of getting justice. The corrupt police in Pakistan and other developing countries make a mockery of the rule of law and terrorize their citizens. They are the real enemies in the War on Terror.
Mr. Hussain’s brother describes Tahir Hussain’s despair:
"Sometimes he just feels like getting this over and done with. He once told me don’t bother to try and help, because whatever God ordains is going to happen," Amjad Hussain said. "That scares me."
We cannot allow this miscarriage of justice to be carried out without raising our voices. We must demand clemency or a fair trial for this soul. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has the ability to intervene and has so far refused to do so. The United States, Pervez Musharraf’s real masters, has considerable sway over his actions. As in the case of Mukhtar Mai the light of the world’s attention can shame this act of cowardice from being carried out. Please take the time to contact your senators and congressmen to put pressure on the Government of Pakistan to stop this execution. Please contact the White House and the State Department and let them know that the United States has a duty to speak up in defense of Human Rights. Please contact the Pakistani Embassy in your country and tell them the world is watching. Please send a note to Pervez Musharraf and tell him the world will not forget.
I also ask Muslims in Pakistan and around the world to protest this imminent hanging. This miscarriage of justice is ostensibly being carried out in our name. This man’s death will shame us all. In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful I ask all Muslims to show the quality of mercy in Islam and save this man’s life.
Time is short. Please act now.
Please contact the following:
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Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf via the President’s website.
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Email the Pakistani Ambassador to the United States, His Excellency Jehangir Karamat, at ambassador@pakistan-embassy.org.
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Email the White House at comments@whitehouse.gov.
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Contact your senators and congressmen.
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Contact Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice through the State Department website.
Consider it done!
Robbie, thank you. o:-)
I crossposted on dKos and am hoping to get the news out.
Done.
Because of the dual UK nationality there’s a lot of interest over here in the UK. Thanks Mash.
Thanks Tess!:”>
pk, the butthole of the subcontinent…
or
poor fanatics saudi arabia
or
butthole of south asia
or
…
sorry, not a big pk fan… this is the country the world community allows nu-klear weapons in…
idiots…
dude, I’m sensing that you are not a big fan of Pakistan 😕
no, no no, u misunderstood me.
i have no problems with the short cropped henna dyed hair, overmakeup, heels that are too high, constantly dressed like going to wedding, loud obnoxious voices, hairy upper lips, and acting like they are the most progressive society on earth, while actually they are the most backward in south asia.
and thats just the men… the women are worse…
:d
PS: new combo, butthole of the asian subcontinent…
Mash, done.
Ingrid
Well, I messaged to Musharraff. I hope people really let him here something and maybe the man will be pardoned.
If he is, I will be relieved and amazed.
Thanks Ingrid, Jason. The key here is to make the White House and the State Department aware of the issue. And to get the American papers and news networks to report this story. The Washington Post was the only news outlet in the US that has covered the story so far.
Tess informs me that the British Government is working to try to stop the execution. She offered a link to a London based human rights group that is tracking this case.
Just like in the case of Mukhtar Mai and Abdul Rahman, it was international pressure (and specifically American pressure) that caused the Pakistanis and the Afghanis to back down.
Mash I have written as requested. Also, John Avarosis at AmericaBlog has linked here, and taken up this issue. Hopefully you will get more activists to prrotest and the Most High willing, prevent this crazy judicial murder.
Is there a downside for Musharraf in stopping this execution? Is this at all an issue in the Pakistani press? And who is for the execution of an apparently innocent man?
Mr. Bill, I want to thank John Aravosis for putting this issue in front of his readers. With the help of his readers, I think Mirza Tahir Hussain may just have a chance. o:-)
Well, the downside for Musharraf is that commuting the sentence will piss off the radical Islamists. But Tony Blair has appealed personally to Musharraf to not kill this man and if Bush were to do so, the political benefit might outweigh any backlash from the Islamists.
The same scenerio played out when Musharraf had made Mukhtar Mai “disappear” for a while for the “crime” of being raped. But, when the US protested directly, things were nicely smoothed out and Ms. Mai was allowed to leave Pakistan.
I’ve been trying to track down Pakistani news on this issue. So far, I have found that the Dawn (Pakistan’s biggest newspaper) reported about Blair’s appeal and thats it. I suspect that there is very little outrage there currently as there probably has been little coverage by the Press. I’ll check with friends of mine who have contacts in Pakistan and see if I can get a better feel for the mood there.
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Thanks for the information and the addresses. Letters are on the way and I will cross post on my blog.
Thank you for publicising this.
Hardy and Innocent man, thank you for spreading the word.
Jayann, thanks. Let’s go out and make some noise. Write the letters and lets get this on the front pages of the MSM.
Thank you all for speaking up. 🙂
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good job highlighting this. we could highlight the need for democracy at the same time.
i’ve just been looking through the Hudood Ordinance – oh it’s so disgusting!
There is untold tortures being routinely applied across the united states via county cps agencies who care not for children or truth or anything resembling the america i thoughgt i knew! a untold tragedy of the future to add to the ghastly war and murder and deceit by the government
shes so beautiful ^_^