19 MUHAMMAD AMIN THE ‘TERRORIST’: A TEENAGE BYSTANDER CAUGHT IN ANOTHER FAMILY’S DISPUTE SENTENCED TO DEATH: JANUARY 2000 (14 YEARS SERVED ON DEATH ROW) HELD IN: CENTRAL JAIL RAWALPINDI, PUNJAB On the trial court’s own calculation, Muhammad was just 16 or 17 years old when he was arrested in 1998 for allegedly killing a man during a burglary gone wrong. In fact, Muhammad had accompanied a classmate to the house of the classmate’s stepmother and was waiting outside when he heard shots. The classmate came running from the house and fled, leaving Muhammad to be apprehended and severely beaten by police. To this day, Muhammad’s body still bears the scars from this assault. At trial, Muhammad’s defence lawyer did not even raise his client’s young age. Had he done so, Muhammad may well have avoided a death sentence. On appeal, his new lawyer tried to submit evidence proving that Muhammad was a juvenile at the time of his arrest, but this was summarily dismissed by the court as being “of no avail so belatedly”. Muhammad received two death sentences at trial, one for murder and a second under the Anti-Terrorism Act because the murder cased “terror, sense of fear and insecurity in the people of [the] locality”. “THE TENDERING OF DOCUMENTS LIKE HIS SCHOOL LEAVING CERTIFICATE [INDICATING THAT MUHAMMAD WAS A JUVENILE AT THE TIME OF HIS ARREST] AT THIS STAGE SHOULD ALSO BE OF NO AVAIL SO BELATEDLY.” The Supreme Court judge in Muhammad’s case In 2004, Muhammad was pardoned for the murder conviction by the victim’s family. However, he continues to face execution under the Anti-Terrorism Act. Muhammad has now spent over 14 years on death row and, during this time, has developed severe memory loss. TERROR ON DEATH ROW THE ABUSE AND OVERUSE OF PAKISTAN’S ANTI-TERRORISM LEGISLATION