October 25, 2003	Saturday	Sha’aban 28, 1424

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PESHAWAR, Oct 24: The Amnesty International has expressed concern over the impending execution of a juvenile offender, Mohammad Ameen, after the refusal of the Chief Justice of Pakistan to allow the documentary evidence of his age to be taken into account.

In an urgent action call on Thursday, the Amnesty International urged upon human right activists across the world to send appeals to the president of Pakistan, urging him to commute the juvenile offender’s death sentence, adding that the sentence contravenes both Pakistani and international laws.

The human rights body has called for instituting an independent and impartial investigation into what it termed unfair trial of the accused.

President Pervez Musharraf had announced clemency to juvenile convicts, who had been awarded death sentences, when Amnesty International’s secretary- general Irene Khan had Pakistan. But Mohammad Ameen’s death sentence was not commuted. Mohammad Ameen’s only hope of clemency lies in a mercy petition filed on his behalf with the president.