Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying

Justice was delayed 18 years, but today it has come:

A British man on Pakistan’s death row for 18 years was freed Friday and flew out of the country following an act of clemency by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf that was hailed by human rights groups.

Mirza Tahir Hussain "is on his way back home," British High Commission spokesman Aidan Liddle told The Associated Press without providing further details.

Hussain has maintained his innocence for killing taxi driver Jamshed Khan in 1988.

On Wednesday, Musharraf ordered Hussain’s death sentence commuted to life behind bars, which under Pakistan’s sentencing rules equates to 14 years, meaning that he has served his time, the president’s office said.

Thanks to everyone who petitioned for his release. There are many others suffering like Tahir Hussain suffered for crimes they did not commit. Our focus should continue to be on the millions around the world who are unjustly denied a chance at life. That is the real freedom agenda - it doesn’t mean bombing people to free them of their bodies. It means freedom from poverty, freedom from desease, freedom from humiliation, freedom from persecution, freedom from fear, freedom to exist.

Today I am happy for Mirza Tahir Hussain and his family. He has 18 years of living to get back. Godspeed.

 [Thanks to Tess for bringing this to my attention.]

[Hat tip to Beagle for bringing this to my attention in a comment.]

The Pakistan High Commission in London confirmed, on the day a protest was scheduled at its doorstep, that Mirza Tahir Hussain’s execution has been stayed again for another month. He is now scheduled to be executed on September 3.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf should, instead of torturing Mr. Hussain and his family with one-month stays of execution, do the right thing and pardon this man.

According to The Guardian:

The Pakistani high commission in London today confirmed reports that a British man being held on death row in Pakistan has been granted a stay of execution.

Mirza Tahir Hussain, 36, has spent half his life in jail awaiting execution after being convicted of the murder of a taxi driver in 1988 - a crime he has always maintained he did not commit.

Despite the Pakistani high court clearing his name in 1996 an Islamic court took over his case and reaffirmed the death sentence.

 

This morning, as 150 demonstrators gathered at the Pakistani high commission in London, Mahmood Ahmed, an official at the Adiala jail in Islamabad said he had received an order from the Pakistan president, General Pervez Musharraf, on Wednesday to postpone Mr Hussain’s execution until September 1.

 

Mr Hussain’s brother condemned President Musharraf for "playing a game of cat and mouse" with his brother’s life.

"We did not ask for a further stay of execution," Mr Hussain said. "We asked for President Musharraf to pardon my brother, or commute his sentence."

He said that the stay of execution was "prolonging the agony" of the family.

Sarah Green from Amnesty International said that the campaign group was deeply suspicious of the timing of the announcement.

"It’s worrying that the family were not told first, and that the news was given directly to journalists," she said.

"It reflects the way this case has happened and we suspect the information on the reprieve was given out in the hope that the protestors will go away."

Officials at the Pakistani high commission had earlier refused to confirm that Mr Hussain had been granted another month to live.

Click here to read the article in its entirety. Click here for background on his case.

The one-month stay of execution for Mirza Tahir Hussain has expired. Unless the Pakistani government intervenes to stop his execution he will be hanged for a crime that he did not commit. With the world watching will Pervez Musharraf allow an innocent man to be executed?

Mirza Tahir Hussain is a British citizen of Pakistani origin. In December 1988, he was visiting Pakistan with his family over Christmas vacation when he was involved in a struggle with a taxi driver who tried to rob him. In that struggle, the taxi driver’s gun went off killing him. Mr. Hussain drove the taxi to the nearest police station to report the incident. He was immediately taken into custody and charged with murder. After he was acquitted of murder by Pakistan’s High Court, the family of the taxi driver took the case to Pakistan’s Islamic court. In a split decision, Mr. Hussain was found guilty of murder by the Islamic court and sentenced to death.

Since being convicted of murdering the Pakistani taxi driver at the age of 18 by the Islamic court, Mr. Hussain has spent half his life on Pakistan’s death row. In May, under heavy international pressure, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf stayed his execution for one month to allow negotiations to proceed with the victim’s family. Under Islamic law, the victim’s family has the power to stop the execution in exchange for compensation. So far, they have refused as a matter of tribal honor to stop the execution.

Mr. Hussain was convicted of murder based on fabricated evidence by the police and without a witness as is required by Islamic law. In spite of the lack of evidence of his guilt and contrary evidence that strongly supports his innocence, he remains on death row and now faces imminent execution. For more details about his case, read my posts here and here. For further background from the Associated Press and Amnesty International, click here and here.

Mr. Hussain’s brother has traveled from Britain to Pakistan in a frantic effort to try to save his life. With time running out, it is left to Pervez Musharraf to end this ordeal and save this innocent life. Will America’s ally protect innocent life or will he allow a killing to go forward?

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has stayed the execution of Mirza Tahir Hussain originally scheduled for June 1st for one month. However, the Pakistani newspaper Dawn reports that Hussain’s brother fears for Hussain’s safety and has asked the jail to protect his life:

 Family members of British national Mirza Tahir Hussain, a murder convict, have requested the administration of Adiala jail to take stringent security steps as they feared for his life.

The convict’s brother Mirza Amjad Hussain in an application to Superintendent of Adiala jail Tariq Babar said he received threats from the family of Jamshed Khan who was killed by Tahir in 1989.

He claimed that his brother (Tahir) might be killed or injured by his rivals in the jail. He requested the jail administration to provide security to Tahir.

In his application, Amjad requested the administration that they had not allowed anyone to meet Tahir, except his relatives.

Amjad told Dawn that “the threats are always there.”

He said his family had been receiving threats for the last 18 years. Amjad quoted the rivals as saying that “we are obligated by our tradition to kill our enemy, even if he gets rescued by courts”.

It is not clear whether the jail will protect Hussain from being killed. The comments of the Deputy Superintendent of the jail are not reassuring:

Deputy Superintendent of Jail, Malik Safdar told Dawn that necessary measures would be taken for the security of Tahir on the verbal request of his brother Amjad on Wednesday.

When asked as to what measures are likely to be adopted for Tahir’s security, the deputy superintendent said: “How is it possible to provide security to a man in an overcrowded jail.”

Another Pakistani newspaper, the Pakistan Observer, has published a chilling editorial about the Hussain case. The editorial appears to condone and advocate the murder of Hussain by family members. It makes no reference to the dubious conviction of Hussain by an Islamic Court after an acquittal by Pakistan’s High Court. If this editorial’s position is shared by those operating the jail and others in a position to harm Mirza Tahir Hussain, then his life is in grave danger. The Pakistan Government needs to assure his safety at this crucial juncture. The Pakistan Government must not allow this man to be murdered in jail days after Musharraf stayed his execution.

The entire bloodthirsty Pakistan Observer editorial is printed below:

Security for jailed UK convict

FAMILY members of British national Mirza Tahir Hussain, a murder convict, have requested the administration of Adiala Jail to take stringent security steps as they feared for his life.

It is quite evident that in case any harm is done to the man at this stage, it will expose the state of affairs in this and other prisons of the country. However, the very fact that the family members of the convict fear for his life in the jail indicates the sad security situation in our jails. It is quite understood that the decision of the President to defer conviction of the murderer for a month has caused resentment and indignation amongst family members and relatives of the poor taxi driver, who was killed by Mirza Tahir Hussain. He committed the horrendous crime in 1989 and the poor heirs of the murdered taxi driver had to wait for 18 long long years to get justice. In the first place, this unduly long period in itself amounts to denial of justice but now that the President has stayed his conviction for a month there are chances that ultimately he might get relief. It is because of this denial of justice that people take the law into their hands and shower bullets on the aggressor right before the trial courts. This shows that the aggrieved parties have no faith in the judicial system. One wonders what promoted the President to make up his mind to stay the execution. In our view, the President has the right to condone sentences but he is not expected to do so in clear disregard to the principles of justice. It is unfortunate that our system has succumbed to foreign pressure so much so that we are also dictated on execution of one individual. If the UK Government or for that matter the President of Pakistan have developed some sort of sympathy for the murderer, then they should also keep in mind the plight of those whose near and dear one was killed by him. [Emphasis added by me.]

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:

• Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf via the President’s website.
• Email the Pakistani Ambassador to the United States, His Excellency Jehangir Karamat, at ambassador@pakistan-embassy.org.
• Email the White House at comments@whitehouse.gov.
• Contact your senators and congressmen.
• Contact Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice through the State Department website.