LAHORE: Rights activists in the country and from the European Union condemned the execution of a convicted murderer who campaigners say was a juvenile when the crime was committed.

Ansar Iqbal was accused of the killing after a quarrel when he was a student in 1994. He was executed on Tuesday.

But Namra Gilani, a lawyer for the Justice Project Pakis­tan (JPP), said on Friday that Iqbal’s family had approached the advocacy group recently.

Also read: Convict said to be minor at time of crime executed in Sargodha

They said Iqbal, their only son, had been born in 1978, and so was under 18 at the time of the crime.

The EU delegation to Pakistan issued a statement saying the court had reportedly refused to consider new evidence that proved his age, including an official birth certificate.

“This adds to a growing number of cases where executions have been carried out in Pakistan for crimes allegedly carried out by juveniles,” the statement said.

Iqbal’s co-accused Ghulam Shabbir was eventually declared a juvenile and his death sentence commuted to 14 years imprisonment.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd , 2015

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