9 As a result, a defendant improperly tried as a ‘terrorist’ does not merely face wrongful categorisation as this type of offender. He or she instead faces a wholesale curtailment of many of the most fundamental rights of fair trial and due process, in a trial for which he and his lawyer have not even had sufficient time to prepare. Even for those whose crimes may more legitimately be characterised as ‘terrorist acts’, the scale of the curtailment of fundamental rights imposed by the Anti-Terrorism Act is unjustifiable. “THIS IS A RECIPE FOR TURNING AN INNOCENT PERSON INTO A SUSPECT, AND A SUSPECT INTO A CULPRIT EVEN A DEAD CULPRIT. THE LAW ALMOST ASSUMES GUILT. IT MAKES THINGS AS DIFFICULT FOR THE ACCUSED AS POSSIBLE BEHIND THE FIG LEAF OF DUE PROCESS.” Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, August 1997 6 CONCERN NO. 4: GREATLY HEIGHTENED RISK OF TORTURE BY POLICE Of the numerous problematic elements in Pakistan’s anti-terror regime, one of the most concerning is Section 21-H of the ATA. This is the Section which permits the use at trial of extra-judicial ‘confessions’ given to police or security forces in terrorism cases. In ordinary criminal cases, the use of confessions given to police officers or security forces – as opposed to those given to magistrates – is prohibited by the Qanun-e-Shahadat Order of 1984 (the Evidence Act). This prohibition provides a crucial safeguard against the use of torture by police during their investigations to extract a ‘confession’ from a defendant, which are then used to convict that defendant at trial. “POLICE TORTURED ME TO TRY AND MAKE ME CONFESS. I WAS HUNG BY MY HANDS, BEATEN REPEATEDLY WITH BATONS, PUNCHED, SLAPPED AND KICKED. THEY HELD A GUN TO MY HEAD AND SAID THEY WOULD KILL ME IF I DID NOT CONFESS. I WAS 17 YEARS OLD AT THE TIME.” Death row prisoner Muhammad Amin (see Case Study on page 19 below) Torture by police, as a report produced by JPP earlier this year made clear, 7 is a widespread and systemic problem in Pakistan; it represents one of the most TERROR ON DEATH ROW THE ABUSE AND OVERUSE OF PAKISTAN’S ANTI-TERRORISM LEGISLATION