Muzaffarabad, Pakistan--Relatives of a Pakistani death row prisoner said Tuesday they "felt a wave of life" when his execution was halted to examine claims he was a juvenile when the crime was committed.
The reprieve for Shafqat Hussain, sentenced to hang for killing a seven-year-old boy in Karachi in 2004, came just hours before he was due to go to the gallows around dawn at a prison in the city.
It was his fourth stay of execution in five months in a case that has prompted grave concern among international rights campaigners and the United Nations.
Hussain's lawyers and family say he was under 18 at the time of the killing, and therefore not eligible for execution under Pakistani law.
They also claim he was tortured into confessing.
His brother Manzoor Hussain said relatives gathered in Muzaffarabad, the main town of Pakistani Kashmir where the family hails from, to keep a vigil during the night of the expected hanging.
"When we were informed at 3:00 am that he has survived, we felt a wave of life inside us," he told AFP.
"We were not expecting this, we had even found a place for his grave in a local cemetery here in Muzaffarabad."
AFP
