PESHAWAR: Death sentence to juvenile offender upheld
Bureau Report
PESHAWAR, Aug 24: The Supreme Court has dismissed the review petition of a juvenile offender and upheld the death sentence awarded to him by an anti-terrorism court.
Since the petitioner’s counsel had not raised the issue of his age before the trial court, his age was not recorded properly during the trial and the High Court and the Supreme Court did not accept his plea at the appellate stage.
The appellate courts also observed that according to the medical report of the appellant, Mohammad Amin, he was 30 years of age. His counsel claimed that his age was mentioned as 18 years in the medical report and the High Court erroneously recorded the age of an injured person mentioned in another medical report as that of the petitioner.
With the dismissal of the review petition, Mohammad Amin’s only hope now rests with the president of Pakistan who is empowered under the law to commute the death penalty awarded to him.
The review petition was heard by a three-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Sheikh Riaz Ahmad in Islamabad on April 28, which reserved its judgment. Justice Mian Mohammad Ajmal of the Supreme Court pronounced the judgment in Peshawar few days ago.
Arif Khan advocate represented the petitioner before the Supreme Court and stated that according to the birth and school leaving certificates, the petitioner was born on June 5, 1981, and on the date of occurrence, Feb 7, 1998, he was less than 17 years of age. He contended that the trial court had mentioned the age of the convict as 18 years and same age was mentioned in the medical report.
However, he added the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court, which dismissed the appeal of Mohammad Amin on Sept 13, 2001, erred in recording his age as 30 years. He added that in fact an injured in the case, Naseer Ahmad, was mentioned as 30 years of age and the High Court erroneously mentioned that age as that of Mohammad Amin.
In its order, authored by Justice Mian Mohammad Ajmal, the bench observed: “Since the question of age of the petitioner has been appropriately considered and repelled by this court in the judgment under review, therefore, the same cannot be re-agitated and reargued in review petition.”
According to the FIR of the case, three persons had entered a house in Rawalpindi and one of them, who was later recognised as Mohammad Amin, opened fire on the inmates in a room. The firing resulted in the death of one of the inmates, whereas two others received injuries. The accused including Mohammad Amin were arrested and tried by an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi. The court sentenced Amin to death on Jan 21, 2000.
His appeal was dismissed by the Rawalpindi bench of the LHC and then by the Supreme Court on March 19, 2002. Under the Qisas and Diyat law a minor person could not be awarded death penalty.
Similarly, as the age of Mohammad Amin was not recorded properly, therefore, he could not avail a special presidential remission announced in Dec 2001 through which the death penalties of all the juvenile offenders were converted into life imprisonment.
