LAHORE: A Lahorebased lawyer says he is going to approach the Lahore High Court for staying execution of a condemned prisoner set for May 27 on the grounds that he was a juvenile at the time the crime was committed.

Faisal Mahmood was below 18 years of age when he was charged with murder of his friend on Jan 26, 1999, the lawyer is going to argue.

Mahmood was charged by the Gujrat police.

A sessions court tried him under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and handed down life imprisonment on April 26, 2000. The Supreme Court, when moved against the conviction, enhanced the sentence andconverted it into capital punishment, says Barrister Ehtesham Amiruddin, who has taken the case of Faisal Mahmood pro bono.

The condemned prisoner approached the Supreme Court for commutation of sentence in the light of a presidential order conveyed by the interior ministry division on Dec 13, 2001, commuting death sentence of juveniles as defined in Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000, while asserting the convict was less than 18 years of age on the date of commission of offence.

In Mahmood`s case, the date of committing the offence was Jan 26, 1999 and as per school record his date of birth was Feb 1, 1981, which prima facie makes him less than 18 years on the date of occurrence, says the lawyer.