An Indian man condemned to death in country for spying has appealed to President Asif Ali Zardari to spare his life, his lawyer said on Monday, after the Supreme Court dismissed his petition to review the sentence. The appeal for mercy in a case being closely watched in India comes as relations between nuclear-armed foes India and Pakistan, strained by a militant attack in the Indian city of Mumbai in November, inch towards improvement.
The man, Sarabjit Singh, was sentenced to death in 1991 for spying and bombing that killed 14 people. His family said he was innocent and had crossed the border into Pakistan accidently 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. But a three-member bench upheld the sentence last month, saying they had no reason to reconsider the original sentence. Singh's lawyer, Awais Ahmad Sheikh, met the Indian man in his prison cell in Lahore city and later told reporters Singh had sought mercy from Zardari.
"I appeal to you in the name of God and the humanity to pardon my death sentence," the lawyer said, quoting from the letter, which he showed to reporters. Sheikh said he was going to file the mercy appeal with the president on Wednesday. Singh also sent a message to India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking him to press Zardari for his release, Sheikh said.
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