00:54Pakistan: Shafqat Hussain executed in Karachi despite appeals
Shafqat Hussain was hanged to death at Karachi Central Jail on Tuesday, despite appeals from human rights organisations.
Hussain was convicted of murdering a seven-year-old boy when he was 14, but his lawyers were adamant that he confessed to the crime under duress and torture. However, the appeals to the court were turned down and Hussain was executed just before dawn. His relatives were permitted to see him one last time the evening before and after the hanging they received his body, after waiting outside of the jail for several hours.
Pakistan had imposed a moratorium on death sentences seven years ago, but lifted the suspension in 2014 after 150 people were killed by gunmen in a school massacre, reportedly carried out by the Taliban.
00:54Shafqat Hussain was hanged to death at Karachi Central Jail on Tuesday, despite appeals from human rights organisations.
Hussain was convicted of murdering a seven-year-old boy when he was 14, but his lawyers were adamant that he confessed to the crime under duress and torture. However, the appeals to the court were turned down and Hussain was executed just before dawn. His relatives were permitted to see him one last time the evening before and after the hanging they received his body, after waiting outside of the jail for several hours.
Pakistan had imposed a moratorium on death sentences seven years ago, but lifted the suspension in 2014 after 150 people were killed by gunmen in a school massacre, reportedly carried out by the Taliban.