Marc Callcutt
On 20-21st February Reprieve hosted the first Death Penalty Defence Conference in Pakistan.
We were very privileged to have our recently released client Shabbir Zaib speaking about his time in prison and how his case was transformed by Reprieve. He is photographed below with his Reprieve legal team (from left to right) Sarah Belal, Sultana Noon and myself.
Shabbir is a British national and father-of-three who was arrested whilst on holiday in Pakistan in June 2008. He was accused of the murder of his wife and, following torture by the police, he signed a confession. Reprieve's investigations revealed that the case may have been brought to gain Shabbir's land and money.Witnesses had been encouraged to file reports saying they had seen Shabbir shoot his wife.
Thanks to the work of Shabbir’s lawyer, Sarah Belal, and Reprieve Fellow Sultana Noon, the prosecution case was severely weakened, and various witnesses retracted their statements.
Shabbir was acquitted, and is now free to return to the UK. He said:
"I was told by the police that I needed to confess, but they not what I needed to confess to. They took me out and tied me up, then they then beat my feet. They hit me 15 times. It hurt so much that I almost fainted.
"I told them that I wanted to help and would do whatever they wanted, so they went away and came back with a blank piece of paper that they wanted me to sign. I needed to sign it at the bottom and at various points up the side.
"The old man then told me that no-one would beat me any more, but I would have to stay there a few days. Later I worked out that this was because they needed to give my feet time to recover.
“I am so glad that Sarah and Sultana were with me. All of the other prisoners were extremely jealous and could not understand why Sarah would come and visit me so often. They would ask, “Why is your lawyer so interested in your case?”
"First they asked if she was my wife and then they asked if she was family, but I just said that she was a good lawyer that cared about her clients. Now they all want Sarah to be their lawyer.”
Footage emerged last week of Pakistani police torturing prisoners in this way; it is believed to be common practice.
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Zero DB