Killer of 100 Children in Jail 'Suicide'

Reuters ^

[Olydawg]

LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - A Pakistani man sentenced to be strangled, chopped into 100 pieces and dissolved in acid for the murders of dozens of children has been found dead in his cell in an apparent suicide, prison authorities say.

They said Tuesday the bodies of Javed Iqbal and his 14-year-old accomplice Sabir, who was convicted with him, had been sent to a hospital for a post-mortem examination.

``They have committed suicide by taking some poisonous substance,'' a jail official said in Lahore.

In March last year a Lahore judge sentenced both Iqbal and Sabir to be strangled, cut into pieces and thrown into acid -- the same fate that befell their 100 child victims.

The verdict provoked outrage from lawyers who said the judge had gone beyond Pakistani law which prescribes death penalty executions by hanging.

Iqbal initially confessed to committing what were the worst serial killings in Pakistan's 54-year history, but pleaded not guilty at his trial.

The apparent suicides came just four days after the country's highest Islamic Court had agreed to hear their appeal against the death sentence.

[Olydawg]

Now that's some serious capital punishment!

[Texaggie79]

MAN!!!! And I was looking forward to his sentence every since I heard about it. What a party pooper.

[mississippi red-neck]

No repeat offenders here!

[Commonsense]

Wouldn't it be more effective if they did it in the reverse order? Acid, chop, then anything left, strangle.

[dighton]

The measure of Burke's punishment was felt to be peculiarly appropriate: like his victims, he met his death by stifling; like theirs, his remains formed a ''subject'' for scientific research. On the following day his body was delivered to Professor Monro, who in terms of the sentence dissected it in public. ...Thereafter, as I have told, Burke was flayed, his skin tanned, his body salted and, with exquisite propriety, packed into a barrel for purposes of future lectures, and ultimately his articulated bones were set up to grace the University museum. Never was murderer more comprehensively disposed of; never was justice more amply satisfied; never was ''subject'' more effectively ''burked.''

-- Sir William Roughead, The West Port Murders.

[Raging Against the machine]

hmm... why cant we have those types of punishment in the US ? I bet you'ld a significant decrease in crime.....

[Orual]

A few good ideas here.

[Redcloak]

That's similar to what I was thinking. The steps are correct, but the order's wrong. I'd say chop, acid, strangle. Of course, it would take a talented executioner to make sure that something survives the first two steps.

[Liz]

This is just a guess, of course, but I would wager the recidivism rate is low here.

[aculeus]

... never was justice more amply satisfied; never was ''subject'' more effectively ''burked.''

Much worse than 'borked'.