Mirza Tahir Hussain

After a wrongful conviction by a Sharia court, Mirza Tahir Hussain spent 18 years on Pakistan’s death row – despite the secular Supreme Court ordering that he be released. 

Tahir, who is from Leeds and served in the British Territorial Army, was just 18 years old when he embarked on an ill-fated trip to visit family in Pakistan.

On his second day in the country, Tahir hired a taxi to take him to the village of Bhubar, near Rawalpindi. On the way, the taxi driver attempted to sexually assault Tahir at gunpoint. During the ensuing struggle, the gun went off, injuring the taxi driver, who later died.

Tahir was tried for murder and sentenced to death. After several appeals, his conviction was quashed by the Supreme Court and he was ordered to be released.

However, the victim’s family intervened and succeeded in transferring Tahir’s case to Pakistan’s parallel Sharia court system. In 1998, the Sharia court by a two-to-one majority once again sentenced Tahir to death. The dissenter lambasted the decision as a miscarriage of justice.
Reprieve was contacted in 2006 and immediately began working with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and other organisations to secure a pardon for Tahir.

Reprieve informed leading politicians and other public figures about the case - including the Prime Minister, Prince Charles and President Musharraf of Pakistan - and played a key role in publicising Tahir’s plight in the international media.

In October 2006, Reprieve’s Senior Counsel Zachary Katznelson visited Tahir in prison in Pakistan and met with numerous Pakistani officials and judges to press for justice in the case.

In November 2006, Tahir’s sentence was commuted and he was released after 18 years on death row.