Wheelchair killer faces the gallows
A wheelchair-bound prisoner in Pakistan will be hanged tomorrow despite a previous execution being called off amid concerns he would suffer a prolonged and cruel death due to his condition. Abdul Basit, 43, who is paralysed from the waist down, had received a last-minute reprieve in September after the duty magistrate said the execution was impossible under prison rules as he was unable to stand on the gallows. But a fresh death warrant for Basit was issued by the Faisalabad district court on Friday after the provincial government insisted the execution can proceed without waiting for new guidelines.Campaigners fear that any attempt to hang Basit could see him either facing decapitation or prolonged strangulation.Basit's mother Nusrat Perveen said she had been asked to pay her son a final visit today before his execution.She said: "I appeal to the president and prime minister of Pakistan to pardon my son on humanitarian grounds."Basit, a former administrator at a medical college, was convicted in May 2009 of the murder of the uncle of a woman with whom he was allegedly in a relationship. He has always maintained his innocence. ..
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