Secondary Citizenship - Letters to Death Row

A look at the letter writing campaigns that have saved three individuals who had been placed on death row in various parts of the world.

Tahir Hussain, a British citizen from Leeds, was sentenced to death by a court in Pakistan for the accidental killing of a taxi driver in 1988. Only an energetic letter writing campaign involving Amnesty International led to Tahir's release in November 2006.

Tahir explains what it was like for him on death row, while his brother, Amjad, speaks of the 18-year campaign to set him free.

Maria Gillespie explains her unjust imprisonment in Uruguay in the 1970s, aged only 15. She was tortured simply because her husband was a trade unionist. Maria was released a year later after receiving nearly 1,000 letters of support.

A third case shows pupils writing letters to 19-year-old Delara Darabi, currently on death row in Iran, who claims she took the blame for a murder committed by her boyfriend.