Pakistan’s Supreme Court dismissed on Wednesday an appeal by Sarabjit Singh, an Indian man seeking a review of a death sentence imposed on him 18 years ago for spying and carrying out bombings.
The rejection came as relations between old rivals India and Pakistan inched towards improvement following a meeting last week between their leaders, the first since last year’s militant attack on Mumbai in which 166 people were killed.
But a three-member bench upheld the sentence, saying they had found no reason to reconsider the original ruling.
“There was nothing in the records of the case that could become a basis for reviewing the previous judgment. That’s why it has been dismissed,” Justice Raja Fayyaz told the court.
India’s Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna said his government was not aware of the details of the judgement.
“Sarabjit Singh’s case has touched the sentiments of many people in India who have been following this case,” Krishna said. “We have consistently urged the government of Pakistan to take a sympathetic and humanitarian view in this case. It is our hope that they will find it possible to do so.”
Sarabjit, alias Manjit Singh, had been convicted in connection with the Yakki Gate blast in Lahore in 1990 — 14 people had died in the explosion. He is currently lodged in Kot Lakhpat jail, Lahore.
Singh was sentenced to death in 1991 for spying and bombings that killed 14 people. His family said he was innocent and had crossed the border into Pakistan accidentally in 1990 while he was drunk.
Pakistani officials said Singh was arrested while trying to slip back into India after the bomb blasts.The government suspended his death sentence in May last year after his family visited Pakistan and appealed for a pardon.
His lawyer Rana Abdul Hameed conceded that his failure to appear before the apex court on Wednesday morning on time might have angered and provoked the judges to reject the review petition.
He said he had to travel from Lahore to Islamabad but couldn’t make it in time. But this isn’t the first time that Rana failed to appear before the judges.
Asked it he was to blame, Rana said he was an advocate-general and “cannot be present in the court as I’m a government lawyer”. “The lawyer who was to represent him [Sarabjit] was in some other court,” he said, adding that he still had hopes for Sarabjit as his clemency petition was pending before president Zardari, who reportedly has a soft corner for the convicted Indian; Sarabjit’s mercy plea was rejected Pervez Musharraf in 2008.
Zardari’s spokesperson Farhatullah Babar, however, said the government needed more time to study the case.
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