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Wednesday 27 June 2012

Sarabjeet to walk free as Pak commutes death sentence

cleanmediatoday.blogspot.com


Sarabjeet to walk free as Pak commutes death sentence
 Clean Media Correspondent


 Islamabad June 26 (CMC) After languishing for 22 long years in a Pakistan jail, Sarabjit Singh would soon be a free man walking back home to India as his death sentence has been commuted to life imprisonment, reports said Tuesday.

Reports say, Sarabjeet could be released next week after the completion of all the legal formalities. The Pakistani Law Ministry has asked the Interior Ministry to take steps to "immediately" release Sarabjit as he had already served his sentence.

The release orders were given by Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari in a move that seems to reciprocate the recent release of Pakistani virologist Khalil Chishti by India.

Chishti, who was convicted of involvement in the murder of a man in Ajmer in 1992, was recently freed on bail by India's Supreme Court. The court had announced this clemency during the religious visit of Zardari to India.


Sarabjeet has so far filed five clemency appeals. The fifth appeal that was filed by him last month included a document with the signatures of 100,000 Indians. Also, attached were two letters addressed to Mr. Zardari by Delhi's Jama Masjid Shahi Imam Syed Ahmed Bukhari and Syed Muhammad Yamin Hashmi, the caretaker of the shrine of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti.

"Singh should be freed on humanitarian grounds, which will not only help in promoting goodwill between the two neighbours but will also result in promoting communal harmony among Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims of India," the imam wrote in the letter.

Sarabjit Singh, who was convicted for alleged involvement in bomb attacks in 1990 in Pakistan, has been in Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore for last 22 years.

Sarabjit has maintained that his was a case of mistaken identity, since even the FIR was not registered in his name.
 

His sister Dalbir Kaur had been spearheading the ‘free Sarabjeet’ campaign and helped in bringing the case to limelight.

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