Black warrant: Jaleel Morejo escapes death for the 20th time

Prisoner has been on death row for the past 15 years.

SUKKUR:

Hafiz Jaleel Morejo, who was scheduled to be hanged today, has evaded death for the 20th time.

The current death warrant was issued on January 2, when the district and sessions court in Naushero Feroze directed the jail authorities to hang Jaleel on January 17. However, the conviction has been postponed till March 31, due to orders from the president, as the Pakistan Peoples Party hopes to amend the death penalty law.

Jaleel, a resident of Chanari village in Naushero Feroze, was awarded the death penalty in April 2000. He was in jail for the murder of Haji Muhammad Haroon Morejo in 1997 to avenge the murders of his father and uncle. His first black warrant was issued on March 14, 2008, but his execution was pushed back two months. He filed petitions in the Sindh High Court, followed by the Supreme Court and the president, but they were all dismissed.



The Express Tribune interviewed Jaleel in July 2011, when his black warrant was extended for the 17th time. “Evading death 17 times brings joy and worry at the same time. I feel that I am constantly being taken to the gallows but am stopped midway.”

After his 17th return trip from the noose, he tried to tell the world of his innocence. “I am serving a 14-year sentence for a crime I never committed,” he said. Jaleel, a jawan in the 7th Sindh Regiment from 1993 to 1997, is a Hafiz-e-Quran. “Whenever a black warrant is issued for me, I start praying to Allah Almighty,” he said.

His version of events differed from the recorded facts. He said that his father, Abdullah Morejo, was embroiled in a karo-kari dispute with his uncle, Haji Habibullah Morejo, and some other men. The matter was resolved at a jirga. “In accordance with the jirga’s verdict, we married a girl from our side to the Haji Habibullah Morejo group,” he said. “However, my uncle, cousins and other people went against the verdict and raided our land. They killed my father, Abdullah Morejo, and uncle, Maulvi Abdul Haq Morejo.”

Jaleel said he was framed by his cousins after they killed their own brother. Haji Haroon Morejo - the man Jaleel was accused of killing - was suffering from cancer.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 17^th, 2013.