International Justice Chambers strongly reacts over Pakistani former President Pervaiz Musharraf death penalty verdict
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LONDON – International Justice Chambers strongly reacts over Pakistani former President Pervaiz Musharraf death penalty verdict.
The decision of the court ruling that the body of former President Pervez Musharraf be dragged through the streets and hung for three days in public has demonstrated a total disregard for the rule of law and any standard of common decency.
In a press release on Friday, Guernica 37 International Justice Chambers said that a court does not, nor should it ever, have the power to order the desecration of a body.
On December 17, the former president Pervez Musharraf was convicted of treason and sentenced to death.
The former president is currently undergoing medical treatment in Dubai, and was therefore tried, convicted, and sentenced in absence.
It is of initial concern that the order makes clear that the former president is to be returned to Pakistan for the sentence to be carried out i.e. so as to allow him to be executed; no mention is made of there being a re-trial, a requirement as per international law, and therefore an obligation for Pakistan.
The court, in its ruling, declares that the former president “…has been afforded more than his due share of fair trial”. It is quite clear in this regard that there has been a total abandonment of those principles enshrined in the Constitution and the Criminal Laws of Pakistan. That is of some concern.
