巴基斯坦无辜天主教徒被吊死：阿夫塔布的最后一封信

作者 Aftab Bahadur Masih

一九九二年因所谓多起谋杀罪被判处十五年徒刑，但他从没有犯下过任何谋杀。今天黎明时分，他被吊死。天主教会以及人权活跃人士的种种呼吁无济于事。他在最后一封信中写道：“我是无辜的，我不知道这是否还有用。我希望我的人民拥有国家统一的意识从而战胜宗教仇恨”

拉合尔（亚洲新闻）—今天巴基斯坦时间黎明四点三十分，旁遮普邦首府拉合尔市科特拉克帕监狱当局将天主教徒阿夫塔布·巴哈杜尔·马西赫吊死。他因三人被杀被判处十五年徒刑，但他没有犯下任何谋杀罪。近年来，天主教会以及人权活跃人士的种种呼吁无济于事。巴基斯坦主教团主席，卡拉奇总主教区宗主教约瑟夫·考茨蒙席曾致函巴基斯坦总统胡赛因，要求推迟行刑展开新的调查。

一九九二年，阿夫塔布因父子三人被杀被捕并被判刑。凶杀发生的第二天，他的雇主水暖工穆斯塔法被捕，并在警方严刑拷打下招出阿夫塔布。不久前，穆斯塔夫承认阿夫塔布与谋杀无关，只是目击者而已。他还在一位宗教领导人面前亲自留下了证词，声明自己没有撒谎。

阿夫塔布本人始终坚持自己是无罪的。多年来，他讲述了自己被捕时警方要求五千美元才能放他走。可那时他根本没有这么多钱。

去年，巴基斯坦政府总理谢里夫在塔利班袭击了白沙瓦警察学校后取消了暂停执行死刑令。134名学生和19名成年人在自杀式恐怖袭击中被炸死。行刑前，阿夫塔布留下了最后一封信，讲述了自己的感受。全文英文版如下：

"I just received my black warrant. It says I will be hanged by the neck until dead on Wednesday, June 10. I am innocent, but I do not know whether that will make any difference.

During the last 22 years of my imprisonment, I have received death warrants many times. It is strange, but I cannot even tell you how many times I have been told that I am about to die.

Obviously, it feels bad whenever the warrants are issued. I start to count down the days, which is in itself painful, and I find that my nerves are shackled in the same way as my body.

In truth, I die many times before my death. I suppose my life experience is different from that of most people, but I doubt there is anything more dreadful than being told that you are going to die, and then sitting in a prison cell just waiting for that moment.

For many years – since I was just 15 years old – I have been stranded between life and death. It has been a complete limbo, total uncertainty about the future.

I am a Christian, and sometimes that is difficult here. Unfortunately, there is one prisoner in particular who has tried to make our lives more difficult. I don't know why he does it.

I got very upset over the Christian bombings that took place in Peshawar. This hurt me deeply, and I wish that Pakistani people could possess a sense of nationality that overrode their sectarianism. There is a small group of us here who are Christians, just four or five, and we are now all in one cell, which has improved my life.

I do everything I can to escape my misery. I am an art lover. I was an artist – just an ordinary one – from my early days, when I was first conscious of anything.

Even back then, I was inclined towards painting, as well as writing verses. Although I had no training, it was just a gift of God. But after I was brought to jail I had no other way to express my feelings, as I was then in a state of complete alienation and loneliness.

I began some time ago to paint all the signs for the Kot Lakhpat jail, where I am held. Then I was asked to do signs for other jails. Nothing in this world can give me more happiness than the feeling when I paint some idea, or feeling on the canvas. It is my life, so I am happy to do it. My workload is great, and I am exhausted at the end of each day, but I am glad of that, as it keeps my mind off other things.

I have no family to visit me, so when someone does come, it is a wonderful experience. It allows me to reap ideas from the outside world that I can then lay down on my canvas. Being asked about how I was tortured by the police brought back terrible memories that I turned into pictures, though it would perhaps have been better not to have to think of what the police did to try to get me to confess falsely to this crime.

When we heard the news about lifting the death penalty moratorium in December 2014, fear prevailed throughout the cells of the prison here. There was an overriding sense of horror. The atmosphere hung, gloomy, over us all. But then the executions actually started at Kot Lakhpat Jail, and everyone started to go through mental torture. Those who were being hanged had been our companions for many years on this road to death, and it is only natural that their deaths left us in a state of despair.

While the death penalty moratorium was ended on the pretext of killing terrorists, most of the people here in Kot Lakhpat are charged with regular crimes. Quite how killing them is going to stop the sectarian violence in this country, I cannot say.

I hope I do not die on Wednesday, but I have no source of money, so I can only rely on God and on my volunteer lawyers. I have not given up hope, though the night is very dark.