Testimonial

Pakistan: 18 years in a death cell despite his innocence

// A series of testimonials collected by Justice Project Pakistan: “3 stories from death row” (1)

Pakistan’s death row population is evaluated at around 5,000 people; one of the largest on the planet.1 Pakistani trial courts sentenced 250 persons to death in 2018.

In 2019, Justice Project Pakistan published “The Death Penalty in Pakistan: A Critical Review”. The book documents the many ways in which Pakistan’s application of the death penalty intersects with legal, social, and political realities. The last chapter recounts the lives of three prisoners formerly sentenced to death before, during and after their time on death row.

Safeer spent 18 years in prison. The High Court commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment. He has now been released on bail to await his Supreme Court appeal. He tells his story.


  1. Death penalty worldwide website 

I knew I would be spending a lot of time there, so I had to be patient.

I felt like I was levitating two feet above the ground