ISLAMABAD, 18 November 2006 — British national, Mirza Tahir Hussain, released from jail after spending 18 years on death row for killing a taxi driver was flown out of the country yesterday, a senior government official said. He was scheduled to arrive at London’s Heathrow Airport late in the night.
Hussain, 36, left Pakistan on a commercial flight amid tight security just hours after leaving prison and a day after President Pervez Musharraf commuted his death sentence.
Hussain’s release followed appeals by Britain’s Prince Charles and Prime Minister Tony Blair.
“Mirza Tahir Hussain has been released this morning. He is a free person now and he can go wherever he wants to go,” Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said yesterday. “He has been released after calculating the period he spent in jail,” he added. Officials said a life sentence was usually 25 years but Hussain had served enough time because of Muslim holidays and good behavior. British High Commission spokesman Aiden Liddle said, “He’s out of the country.”
Hussain, from Leeds in northern England, allegedly murdered taxi driver Jamshed Khan in 1988 shortly after arriving in Pakistan to visit family. He claims he acted in self-defense after the driver tried to sexually assault him. Hussain’s brother Amjad, who led a campaign to overturn the death sentence, welcomed his release and hailed the “enlightened” intervention of Musharraf.
But he lamented the “horror” of Mirza’s ordeal and warned that he will face a long rehabilitation from psychological problems he suffered in prison. Amjad also thanked Prince Charles and Blair for their help.
Amjad said Jamshed’s family, whom he described as “tribal”, had rejected an offer of “blood money”. “I hope they can find peace. If they search deep in their heart, they will know that their son too was on the wrong path. Because of him, my family has suffered. My doors have been open to them and they refused,” he said at Amnesty International UK’s Human Rights Action Center in east London.
Asked about the homecoming, he said the family were “overjoyed”, in particular his mother. “She said, I would like to hold him in my arms but I’ll believe it (his release) when I see him,” he added.
Jamshed’s family slammed the decision, saying they had been “buried under a mountain of grief.” They said they would petition the Supreme Court against Hussain’s release.
Blair Due in Islamabad Shortly
British Prime Minister Blair will visit Pakistan “shortly” for talks that will focus on security in Afghanistan, where 5,000 British troops are serving with a NATO force fighting a Taleban-led insurgency, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday.
