Pakistani authorities are set to hang a man who says he was 15 when he was arrested for a murder he claims he did not commit, lawyers said yesterday, in the latest case to shine a spotlight on Pakistan’s crumbling criminal justice system.

Ansar Iqbal says he was 15 when he and a friend were arrested 16 years ago for the murder of neighbour, which the victim’s family said was over an argument at a cricket match. Iqbal says police framed him because he was poor by planting two guns at his house.

Pakistani law forbids the execution of juveniles, but the country’s courts have refused to examine Iqbal’s school records and birth certificate because they say they were submitted too late, said Maya Foa of British legal aid group Reprieve.

Case shines a spotlight on Pakistan’s crumbling justice system

His old school record and a new birth certificate issued this year give his age as 14 and 15 respectively. Record keeping in Pakistan is poor and records are easily forged.

Instead, the court concluded he was in his early 20s based on a policeman’s estimate at the time of his arrest, Foa said. Iqbal’s friend was tried as a juvenile.

“The onus has to be on the government and prosecution to prove that the individual facing the gallows is not a juvenile if all the available evidence points otherwise,” she said.

“Otherwise it puts the defendant in an impossible position.”