Islamabad: A British man on death row for 18 years in Pakistan was freed on Friday, two days after President Gen Pervez Musharraf granted him clemency, officials said.
''He has been released this morning,'' Pakistan's Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao told The Associated Press.
Mirza Tahir Hussain, who has maintained his innocence for killing a taxi driver, was freed ahead of a weekend visit by British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
At Hussain's family home in the northern English city of Leeds, his brother, Amjad, praised the Pakistani and British governments for freeing his brother, who he said was still in Pakistan processing paper work before departing for the U.K.
''I am delighted – thankful to President Musharraf and the Pakistani Cabinet for taking this unprecedented step and granting the release of my brother,'' an emotional Amjad Hussain told The Associated Press. ''We as a family are indebted to them and are all very emotional now. We will now have to help him adjust to his new life outside.''
Musharraf gave an order Wednesday that Hussain's death sentence should be commuted to life behind bars, Sherpao said.
Under Pakistan's sentencing rules, a life sentence is equivalent to 14 years, which means Hussain has served his time, an official from the president's office said on condition of anonymity because of prohibitions on speaking to the media.
Hussain was being held at the high-security Adiala prison in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad.
His whereabouts were not immediately known Friday, but British High Commission officials have been closely following his case and pushing for his release. Diplomats were not immediately available for comment.
Last month, Musharraf granted Hussain a fourth stay of his execution by hanging, postponing it to December 31. But repeated calls for the Briton's release had been rejected until now.
Britain's Prince Charles, who raised Hussain's case with Musharraf during a recent visit to Pakistan, was ''very pleased'' with the decision, the prince's office at Clarence House said.
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Hussain was 18 in 1988 when he traveled to his ancestral home of Pakistan for the first time to visit relatives in the Punjab province town of Chakwal.
On the day he arrived, Hussain was picked up by the taxi driver, Khan, who the Briton claimed pulled out a gun and tried to sexually assault him. During a struggle, the driver was fatally shot. Hussain drove the cab and the body to a police station, where he was arrested.
Hussain was convicted and sentenced to death in 1989 for murder, then acquitted in 1996 by a higher court. However, an Islamic court overturned the acquittal and convicted him of armed robbery, sentencing him to death in 1998 – a penalty that under Islamic law must be carried out unless the victim's family decides to pardon him.
Musharraf, however, used his constitutional powers to commute Hussain's sentence and free him, a move denounced by the slain driver's family.
''We have not forgiven him. We had rejected efforts by mediators. We had rejected offers of money and jobs,'' said Imran Khan, 25-year-old cousin of Jamshed Khan.
''The government and rulers have committed an injustice with us. The courts had given us justice and they had not the right to release him after rejecting his mercy appeal earlier.''
British and European officials praised the decision to commute the sentence on humanitarian grounds, while human rights activists and relatives awaited Hussain's return to Britain.
In Brussels, European Parliament President Josep Borrell, who had lobbied Musharraf to spare Hussain's life, welcomed the decision and praised the Pakistani president for acting on ''our appeals.''
Blair is expected to visit to Pakistan on Saturday. Last month, Blair told Britain's Parliament that he had recently urged Musharraf to prevent Hussain's execution, saying it would be ''very serious'' if it carried out the death sentence.
Last month, Hussain, in a rare interview with The Associated Press from his prison cell, maintained his innocence.
''I hope for the best and try to be ready for the worst, and leave everything to Allah,'' Hussain said.
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