Pakistani man gets execution reprieve

A Pakistani man whose lawyers say was a child when charged with murder, and only confessed after being tortured, was handed a reprieve just hours before he was due to be executed, the fourth time his death penalty has been stayed.

The Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), a human rights law firm representing Shafqat Hussain, said the Supreme Court in the capital Islamabad had agreed to hear its appeal against an earlier court decision that rejected an inquiry into the case.

The Supreme Court adjourned the hearing until today.