Second Pakistani from Haripur district executed in China
Zahid Hussain Shah was apprehended on drug trafficking charges.
HARIPUR:
A Pakistani businessman belonging to district Haripur was executed by Chinese authorities Wednesday afternoon, police and family sources said.
Hailing from Hazara’s Khalabat Township, 36-year-old Syed Zahid Hussain Shah was sentenced to death in China last year on charges of drug trafficking. He was executed with a lethal injection on Wednesday, family sources confirmed to The Express Tribune.
The deceased’s body hasn’t been handed over to the family yet, sources said, adding that Shah’s final rites will be performed in his hometown.
This is the second execution of a district Haripur resident in China in as many years.
A man named Tariq was also executed in 2010 after being apprehended by Chinese law enforcement agencies for drug trafficking.
Shah moved to South Korea in late 90s, and shifted to China in 2007 saying he had started a business there.
“We were informed that he was arrested by the Shanghai police while smuggling drugs in April 2008”, said Zamrud, a relative of Shah. Shah’s death sentence was upheld by China’s Supreme Court while four of his accomplices, also from Pakistan, were sentenced to life imprisonment.
“We approached the Pakistani government through Amnesty International and Asian Human Rights Commission,” Zamrud said, adding that these organisations appealed to the Chinese government for clemency or commuting Shah’s capital punishment to life imprisonment, following the precedent of three Filipinos whose capital punishment was commuted to life imprisonment earlier this year.
Zamrud blamed the government of Pakistan and authorities at the Pakistani embassy in Beijing for their lack of interest in pursuing the case and claimed that Shah was framed by business partners.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 22nd, 2011.
A Pakistani businessman belonging to district Haripur was executed by Chinese authorities Wednesday afternoon, police and family sources said.
Hailing from Hazara’s Khalabat Township, 36-year-old Syed Zahid Hussain Shah was sentenced to death in China last year on charges of drug trafficking. He was executed with a lethal injection on Wednesday, family sources confirmed to The Express Tribune.
The deceased’s body hasn’t been handed over to the family yet, sources said, adding that Shah’s final rites will be performed in his hometown.
This is the second execution of a district Haripur resident in China in as many years.
A man named Tariq was also executed in 2010 after being apprehended by Chinese law enforcement agencies for drug trafficking.
Shah moved to South Korea in late 90s, and shifted to China in 2007 saying he had started a business there.
“We were informed that he was arrested by the Shanghai police while smuggling drugs in April 2008”, said Zamrud, a relative of Shah. Shah’s death sentence was upheld by China’s Supreme Court while four of his accomplices, also from Pakistan, were sentenced to life imprisonment.
“We approached the Pakistani government through Amnesty International and Asian Human Rights Commission,” Zamrud said, adding that these organisations appealed to the Chinese government for clemency or commuting Shah’s capital punishment to life imprisonment, following the precedent of three Filipinos whose capital punishment was commuted to life imprisonment earlier this year.
Zamrud blamed the government of Pakistan and authorities at the Pakistani embassy in Beijing for their lack of interest in pursuing the case and claimed that Shah was framed by business partners.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 22nd, 2011.