MUZAFFARABAD: The family of a man condemned to death as a teenager made an emotional appeal for mercy Friday, saying a court order for his execution next week had “shattered their hopes.”

An anti-terrorism court in Karachi gave instructions Thursday to hang Shafqat Hussain, convicted of killing a seven-year-old boy in 2004, on March 19.

Hussain’s case has triggered outrage from rights campaigners, who complain he did not get a fair trial and was only 15 at the time of the killing.

His mother Makhni Begum, who last saw Hussain in jail in 2005, insisted he was innocent in an emotional interview with AFP in Kashmir, where the family are from.

“All my hopes are shattered today. I have no faith on the justice of this country,” she said, tears rolling down her cheeks.

“It was my last desire to see my son but now this hope is also dying. Now I am pleading with God for my son’s life.”

Hussain was working as a watchman in the sprawling, violent metropolis of Karachi in 2004 when a seven-year-old boy went missing from the neighbourhood.

A few days later the boy’s family received calls from Hussain’s mobile demanding a ransom of half a million rupees ($8,500 at the time), according to legal papers.

Hussain was arrested and during his first interrogation admitted kidnapping and killing Umair, whose body was found in a plastic bag in a stream.

Hussain later withdrew his confession, saying he had made it under duress, but the case came before an anti-terrorism court which sentenced him to death.