18 MUHAMMAD AKHTAR THE ‘TERRORIST’: A MAN ACQUITTED OF HIS CRIMES, YET STILL ON DEATH ROW SENTENCED TO DEATH: DECEMBER 2000 (14 YEARS SERVED ON DEATH ROW) HELD IN: CENTRAL JAIL FAISALABAD, PUNJAB Muhammad, then an illiterate 21 year old man, received two death sentences in December 2000 for his alleged participation in a murder and rape – he received a third death sentence under the Anti-Terrorism Act for the “panic, harassment and sense of insecurity” these acts were said to have caused in the local community. There are clear signs of misconduct in the police’s investigation of the case. One of the lead officers on the case has since admitted that no fewer than 89 people appeared before him in support of Muhammad, but he refused to take their statements, or even to log their presence in his investigation diary. It was not until a full 18 days later that police even investigated the alleged crime scene. After arresting him, police brutally tortured Muhammad to obtain a ‘confession’. He was hung upside-down from a metal bar (kursi), which causes excruciating pain to the forearms and legs, and stretched whilst tied to a bed (manji). “THE VICTIM’S RIGHT ARM AND LEG ARE TIED TO A BED (MANJI) AND HIS LEFT ARM AND LEG TO A SECOND PARALLEL BED, LEAVING HIS BODY SUSPENDED IN THE MIDDLE. THE TWO BEDS ARE PULLED APART, STRETCHING THE VICTIM’S BODY AND FORCING HIS JOINTS TO SUSTAIN THE ENTIRE WEIGHT OF HIS BODY.” Definition of torture by manji 15 The evidence used at trial to convict Muhammad was likewise extremely flawed. On appeal, the courts found that the eyewitness testimony about the alleged incident was “utterly unreliable” and Muhammad was acquitted of all charges of rape after the Supreme Court found that neither forensic nor medical testing had indicated a single sign of this. Despite these clear holes in the prosecution case, however, the Supreme Court upheld Muhammad’s death sentence. Some years ago, Muhammad received a pardon from the victim’s family, acquitting him of the murder charge. He has therefore been acquitted of both crimes on which his death sentence for terrorism was based – yet he remains on death row, now 35 years old and steadily losing his eyesight.