Pakistani Man Executed Despite Forced Confession Claim

“Shafqat Hussain was this morning executed in Pakistan, despite widespread calls, both within and outside the country, for a stay”, the legal aid group Justice Project Pakistan, which was representing Hussain, said in a statement.

Official Iqbal Hassan says Shafqat Hussain was hanged shortly before dawn on Tuesday at a Karachi prison.

His case drew global attention as his lawyers and family claim he was only 15 at the time of the killing and was tortured into confessing.

UN rights experts said his trial “fell short of global standards”, and urged Pakistan to investigate claims he was underaged and confessed under torture.

A six-year halt to executions came to an end in December as Pakistan got tough on extremism after Taliban gunmen massacred more than 130 children at a school.

An official at the Karachi Central Jail, where the sentence was carried out, confirmed the execution.

“A competent court has gone through Hussain’s case at length and torture allegations were never proved”, police spokesman Qamar Zaib Satti told Reuters. “There is a cut mark on his neck and half of his neck is separated from his body”, brother Abdul Majeed told AFP.

The European Union last week said it was “deeply concerned” by the resumption of hangings and warned that a prized tariff status granted to Pakistan could be threatened unless it stuck to global conventions on fair trials, child rights and preventing torture. State prosecutors said Hussain was an adult working as a watchman when he was arrested.

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) issued on Wednesday a non-bailable arrest warrant for Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain in a criminal intimidation case registered on the complaint of Colonel Tahir Mehmood of Sindh Rangers.

His family have said he was 14; lawyers said the family did not keep records regarding Hussain’s birth.