16 PART IV CASE STUDIES SHAFQAT HUSSAIN THE ‘TERRORIST’: A 14 YEAR OLD BOY WITH NO PRIOR CONVICTIONS SENTENCED TO DEATH: NOVEMBER 2004 (10 YEARS SERVED ON DEATH ROW) HELD IN: CENTRAL PRISON KARACHI, SINDH 14 year old Shafqat Hussain was sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court in November 2004 for alleged kidnap and murder. He was convicted on the basis of a single piece of evidence: a ‘confession’ extracted after nine days of savage beating and torture. In Shafqat’s own words: “They could make you say that a deer was an elephant.” No other evidence existed linking Shafqat to the crime of which he was accused. The victim’s father knew Shafqat well, yet did not identify him as the voice he had heard during multiple ransom calls. Despite this, Shafqat’s state-appointed defence lawyer told his client that “no-one leaves the anti-terrorism courts without a death sentence” and failed to raise evidence that would have prevented Shafqat being sentenced to death. “NO-ONE LEAVES THE ANTI-TERRORISM COURTS WITHOUT A DEATH SENTENCE.” Shafqat’s defence lawyer, prior to his trial Recognising that the case against Shafqat could not stand, the High Court threw out his murder conviction on appeal. Yet the Court failed to strike down Shafqat’s associated ‘terrorism’ charge, which had been tenuously justified on the basis that the original crime “created a sense of terror in the wider community”. For this charge alone Shafqat has been left to await execution in an overcrowded ‘death cell’. Last year, he was informed that he would be executed on 25 August 2013. Letters were sent to his family giving them notice that they would need to say their final goodbyes. Shafqat received notice of the stay of his execution only a few days before he was due to be hanged.