PESHAWAR, Sept 22: Two international human rights bodies, the Law Society of UK and World Organization Against Torture, have requested President Pervez Musharraf to commute the death sentence awarded to juvenile offender Muhammad Ameen.

In their separate appeals to the president, the two bodies have stated that Muhammad Ameen was below 17 at the time of occurrence in 1998.

They stated that a Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court and the Supreme Court of Pakistan had confused his age with that of an injured person in the occurrence and mentioned it as 30 years, which was incorrect.

The Law Society is a professional body representing over 104,000 solicitors in England and Wales. It is concerned about the independence of the legal profession, the rule of law and human rights throughout the world.

In the appeal, it states: “The Law Society recognizes the right and responsibility of all governmental authorities to bring to justice those responsible for criminal offences. We take no position on the retention or the abolition of the death penalty in the domestic law of any country, but we believe strongly that it may only be used in accordance with the international human rights standard.”

“Our concerns in this case are that Muhammad Ameen was only 17 years of age at the time of the crime and also that he did not receive a fair trial,” the society added.

Similarly, the World Organization Against Torture, a network of over 240 human rights bodies across the world, has given an urgent action call to all its members requesting them to send appeals to the president of Pakistan and other officials for commuting the capital punishment slapped on Muhammad Ameen by an anti-terrorism court and upheld by the Supreme Court and the high court.

The Geneva-based organization stated that Pakistan had recently abolished the death penalty against minors by introducing a new Juvenile Justice System Ordinance in July 2000. Also, under the Qisas and Diyat law, a minor cannot be awarded the  death penalty. But in this case, the trial court erroneously entered the age of the young man as 18 and he is now facing the capital punishment. At this critical time, only President Gen Pervez Musharaf has the powers to commute his death sentence.

It also stated that from a legal perspective, the issue of Mohammad Ameen’s age should have been raised and corrected in the first instance. The responsibility of an advocate was to assist the court, however it was also the duty of the court or the presiding officer to gather and keep as much information as required in a particular case for a fair decision and the dispensation of justice.

Hence, the court itself (the trial court as well as the appellate court) should have taken notice of the age of the accused by using its powers.