Rights group urges Pakistan not to hang mentally ill man

A Pakistani rights group has appealed against a court order to hang a mentally ill man suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, reports said.

Death row prisoner, Imdad Ali, who is around 50 years old, was sentenced to death for the murder of a religious teacher in 2002. His execution is scheduled for September 20.

"Imdad Ali is mentally ill and has suffered years without proper treatment," a report by the Justice Project Pakistan (JPP) said on Friday.

JPP said it had filed an appeal against a Lahore High Court decision in August which dismissed pleas that Ali could not be executed on the basis of his mental illness, Pakistan Today reported.

His medical condition should be looked into, as well as the extenuating circumstances that had aggravated his mental illness during his lengthy time on death row, the organisation argued.

--IANS

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