Pakistani lawyers back free defense for accused assassin

Islamabad, Pakistan -- More than 500 lawyers in the city of Rawalpindi support free legal aid to defend the accused assassin of the Punjabi governor, the man's defense lawyer told CNN on Friday.

Malik Waheed Anjum, defense lawyer for Muhammad Mumtaz Qadri and the president of the district bar association in Rawalpindi, said hundreds of lawyers passed an unanimous resolution Thursday asking him to defend Qadri on behalf of the association. "We decided to support Mumtaz Qadri because of his poverty," Anjum said.

Gov. Salman Taseer, killed Tuesday, was a liberal lawmaker who had spoken out against the country's blasphemy laws, which make it a crime punishable by death to insult Islam, the Quran or the Prophet Mohammed.

Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf told news network Al Jazeera that Pakistanis take any blasphemous act against the prophet "very, very seriously." As a result, he said, the blasphemy law must remain. But, he added, "Nobody has a right at all to kill anyone. In Islam, killing any individual is absolutely un-Islamic."

Further, any execution would be the responsibility of the state, not of an individual, he said. "Therefore, I strongly condemn the killing of the governor. I think this is a terrorist act and must be dealt with in the strongest possible terms because it is un-Islamic from all points of view."

Anjum said that Qadri told him Thursday he was tortured and given electric shocks. The court ordered police to conduct a medical examination over the torture accusation, Anjum said.

Though police said Tuesday that Qadri had confessed to assassinating Taseer, Anjum said any confession in front of police has no legal value. "Qadri neither denied nor admitted the murder," Anjum said.

Police had asked the court to keep Qadri in custody for 10 days, Anjum said, but the court granted only five days. Investigators are trying to determine if he acted alone, or had outside help.

Qadri is due to appear in court on Tuesday.