Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Hanging of Indian 'spy' upheld

Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Pakistan's Supreme Court has upheld the hanging of an Indian man convicted for spying and carrying out bomb attacks.

The court dismissed Sarabjit Singh's petition to review the death sentence awarded by a court in 1991.

The court gave its verdict after Singh's lawyer failed to appear.

Singh, lodged in Lahore jail, was due to have been executed last May.

His hanging was put off after PM Yousuf Raza Gilani intervened in the case.

Singh says he is a poor farmer and victim of mistaken identity who strayed drunk from his border village into Pakistan. He was convicted in 1991.

Last year, President Pervez Musharraf rejected Singh's mercy petition and signed his death warrant.

Pakistani officials say Sarabjit Singh is actually Manjit Singh who was arrested while trying to slip back into India.

He was found guilty of spying and carrying out four bombings which killed 14 people in the Pakistani cities of Lahore and Faisalabad in 1990.

Singh's relatives, including his wife, two daughters, sister and her husband, among others, visited Pakistan last year in an attempt to save him.

The case has received wide publicity in India and the government has come under intense political pressure to intervene.

In 2005, former Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh asked for Mr Singh to be pardoned on humanitarian grounds.

India and Pakistan have jailed hundreds of each other's soldiers and civilians during years of hostility.

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