Death Row Scot

Appeal is launched to save Mohammed Ashgar who is facing the death penalty in Pakistan.

Asghar, 70, who has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, was sentenced to death earlier this year after being convicted of blasphemy in 2010. He was arrested and accused of blasphemy after writing a series of letters claiming to be the Prophet Mohammed. Last month Asghar was shot and wounded by a police officer at the Rawalpindi prison where he is held.

The appeal - www.amnesty.org.uk/pakistan - comes as Amnesty warns that numerous countries around the world have also sentenced people to death despite evidence of them having mental and intellectual disabilities - a clear violation of international standards on the death penalty.
 
Siobhan Reardon, Amnesty International's Programme Director in Scotland said:

"It is inconceivable that Mohammad Asghar was attacked by a prison guard – the very person who should be providing protection. This is clear evidence that those accused of blasphemy in Pakistan are never safe from vigilante violence.  He was sentenced to death despite being diagnosed with a serious mental disability. Blasphemy carries a potential death sentence in Pakistan– in direct contravention of the country's international human rights commitments.
 
"The international standards on mental and intellectual disability are important safeguards for vulnerable people. They are not designedto excuse horrendous crimes – but to set clear guidelines for the nature of the penalty that can be imposed.
 
"As the recent shooting incident shows, Mohammad is in mortal danger every day heremains on death row and we are urging the UK government to step up efforts to get himout of prison and into a place of safety.
 
"Mr Asghar should never have been sentenced to death for writing letters – he should be released immediately and his sentence quashed.
 
"Amnesty International has documented cases of people suffering mental and ill disabilities facing execution or being executed in countries including Japan, Pakistan and the USA. Unless these countries urgently reform their criminal justice systems, many more people are at risk. 

"We oppose the death penalty in all circumstances, it is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. But in those countries that still execute, international standards, including those prohibiting the use of capital punishment on certain vulnerable groups, must be respected and implemented, pending full abolition."