International - India & World   

Pakistan apex court rejects Sarabjit's review plea

B. Muralidhar Reddy

Mercy petition to Musharraf is the only way out: counsel

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Supreme Court on Thursday rejected one of the four review petitions filed by Sarabjit Singh, who is facing death sentence on charges of spying and carrying out a series of bomb blasts in the country at the behest of an Indian intelligence agency.

Mr. Singh (40) was arrested in 1990 in connection with four blasts in Lahore and Faisalabad, in which 14 persons were killed. He was tried in a Lahore court and sentenced to death in 1991. Mr. Singh's lawyer Rana Abdul Hameed filed the review petitions last year after the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty.

Mr. Hameed said the court rejected the review petition on the death sentence, awarded in connection with a blast at Yakkigate in Lahore, on the ground that it was filed too late. "We expect the Supreme Court to decide the fate of the other petitions in a week or so, but we have no hope. The only way out appears to be to file a mercy petition before President Pervez Musharraf, seeking his pardon."

Mr. Singh and his family maintain that he was falsely implicated in the cases, after he accidentally crossed over to Pakistan. His lawyer argued that it was a case of "mistaken identity." Mr. Singh, from Amritsar, is lodged in the sKot Lakhpath jail near Lahore.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Iran unites on nuclear programme
File not referred to Council: Lavrov
Position on Norway stays: Colombo
Bird flu spreads fast across Russia
Missile defence system
A computer, sans keyboard
Jail sought for drugging children's tennis rivals
Culture of corruption: ex-Enron official
Deal will not fuel arms race: U.S.
U.N. report discusses corruption in India
Dynasties in focus
A terrorist act, says China
Pakistan apex court rejects Sarabjit's review plea

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu