PESHAWAR, Nov 29: A juvenile offender has been waiting for the outcome of his appeal for more than four years in a death cell at Haripur prison.

The offender, Tahir Khan, was sentenced to death, along with a co-accused, by a trial court on May 4, 1999, here. Since then he has been waiting for the disposal of his appeal, presently pending before the Federal Shariat Court.

In Feb 2002, his appeal was transferred to the Shariat Court by the Peshawar High Court as he was charged under the Offence Against Property (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance, 1979, and under the law, it is the only legal body empowered to dispose of his appeal.

Family members of Tahir Khan claimed that he was a juvenile offender as at the time of occurrence of the crime he was 16 years old. But, they said his lawyer had not raised that point, adding that the trial court had not recorded his age. Even during the framing of the charge against him, the trial court had not recorded his rough age.

The mother of the convict, a widow herself, said that her only hope now rested with the Shariat Court. She claimed that she was “sure” that her son was below 17.

The chairman Voice of Prisoners, Advocate Noor Alam, said that once the case was fixed he would request the court to conduct ossification test of the appellant so as to ascertain his exact age. He said that although at the time of his trial the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2000, was not promulgated, in Dec 2001, the President had issued a notification through which death sentences awarded to juveniles were commuted to life term.

Mr Khan said that as the age of the appellant was not recorded by the trial court, therefore, he could not be extended benefit of the said presidential notification.

Tahir was accused of killing a boy, Anwer Gul, in the jurisdiction of Chamkani police station on July 2, 1998. The complainant in the case was Anwar Gul, father of the deceased, who claimed that they were tending cattle in a field when five men came and forcibly tried to take away some sheep. On resistance, he claimed, the attackers hit his son on head which resulted in his death.