–Top court dismisses convict’s mercy plea despite victim’s ‘forgiveness’
–Says acid attack a ‘bigger crime than murder’ and deserves no clemency
The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday ruled that there would not be any mercy for acid attack offenders as it dismissed the mercy plea of a convict despite his claim that he had been forgiven by his victim.
Hearing the mercy petition of an acid attack convict named Javed Iqbal, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Asif Saeed Khosa said that “acid attack is a bigger crime than murder and offenders do not deserve mercy”.
The convict’s lawyer informed the bench that the female victim had “forgiven” the man for his crime. The top judge, however, remained unmoved, saying that the victim may forgive the convict but the law would not show any leniency towards such offenders.
He further said that the court cannot rule out the possibility of the victim being coerced into forgiving the man in front of the court. “The law cannot forgive anyone who burns someone’s face with acid,” he added.
Terming the crime as an act of “extreme cruelty”, CJP Khosa said that it was a “crime against the state”. He further said that the punishment for such acts was nothing short of life imprisonment. Therefore, he dismissed the petition of the convict.
