Disabled murder convict to be hanged from his wheelchair

Abdul Basit, 43, is paralysed from waist down as he contracted tuberculosis one year after conviction

A death-row convict who is unable to mount the scaffold as he lost the use of his legs having contracted Tuberculosis one year after detention is set to be hanged from his wheelchair, according to The Telegraph.

Abdul Basit, 43, was convicted of murder in 2009 and developed tuberculosis one year later, leaving him paralysed from the waist down.

The death warrant issued on July 29 came in the wake of the lifting of the moratorium on death penalty that has raised many questions over the ethical and some practical aspects of Basit’s execution.

Basit’s lawyers and human rights activists have already started battling to stop his execution. The 43-year-old's final appeal will be heard on August 25 and if that fails, he will be executed within days.

Read: Death penalty: Execution of disabled convict stayed

The problem facing the jail authorities is how to execute Basit since the prison regulations say that the convict must be able to ‘stand’ on the scaffold for the execution, an argument raised by Basit’s lawyer that can change the verdict.

The jail’s handbook read, “The condemned prisoner shall mount the scaffold and shall be placed directly under the beam to which the rope is attached, the warders still holding him by the arms,” leaving questions over the practicality of Basit’s execution.

Since Basit is not able to support his weight and body, he wouldn’t be able to stand on the platform where execution takes place.

Campaigners are trying to get the execution stopped because it involves risks, whereas the authorities seem pre-occupied over thinking how to carry out the execution.

Read: Human rights organisation fears British aid supporting death penalty in Pakistan

Clive Stafford Smith, director of the legal action charity, Reprieve, said, “In the name of all that is decent, it is time for the Pakistan president to call a halt to this grisly experiment with the gallows.”

Basit’s case might be unprecedented in Pakistan but many such cases have emerged in other countries in the past. In the United States, Virginia once executed 39-year-old Charles Stamper who was left ‘extremely disabled’ owing to acute spinal injuries he got in a prison fight.

The article originally appeared on The Telegraph.