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25 April 2024

Pakistan stays execution of mentally ill man

Safia Bano displays the picture of her husband Imdad Ali, a death row prisoner, while she sits with other family members in Burewala, in central Pakistan. (AP)

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By AP

A Pakistani official says the supreme court has temporarily stayed the execution of a mentally ill man.

Imdad Ali was convicted in a 2001 murder case and has exhausted all appeals. A clemency request to Pakistan's president was rejected, and Ali was to be executed on Tuesday.

But Prison Superintendent Syed Babar Ali said Monday that he received an order to halt the execution until the top court hears a petition next week. The two men are not related.

Justice Project Pakistan and the prisoner's family have called on the government to halt the execution. A state-appointed doctor has diagnosed Ali with schizophrenia and declared him unfit to be hanged.

The Justice Project says Pakistan has executed 419 people since it lifted a ban on capital punishment in December 2014.