PAKISTAN:  Editor's death sentence commuted---Mr Afridi's family say they want an outright acquittal

A High Court in Pakistan has spared the life of a newspaper editor sentenced to death for drugs pushing charges.

Rehmat Shah Afridi, the owner and Editor-in-Chief of the English language Frontier Post, has been in prison since his arrest in April 1999.

Officials of Pakistan's Anti-Narcotics Force recovered over 20 kgs of cannabis from his car outside a hotel in Lahore.

Human rights groups have condemned his detention, arguing the charges against him may be politically motivated.

Half million dollar haul

The BBC's Shahid Malik in Lahore says that Mr Afridi is one of around 50 people who have been sentenced to death in Pakistan for drugs pushing, but very few of the sentences have actually been carried out.

The prosecution said that soon after his arrest a lorry was seized which belonged to him in the west Punjab district of Faislabad, containing nearly 630 kgs of cannabis.

The entire quantity was worth $500,000 on the international market, according to estimates provided by anti-narcotics authorities.

In June 2001, an anti-terrorism judge in Lahore sentenced Mr Afridi to death. The court sentenced 2 men found guilty of being his accomplices to life imprisonment.

But on Thursday Justice Tassaduq Hussain Gilani, the presiding judge of a two-member bench of the Lahore High Court, commuted the death penalty. Instead the court sentenced him to life imprisonment, which in Pakistan is normally 25 years.

The High Court also heard an appeal by the two alleged accomplices, but upheld their life sentences.

Speaking to journalists outside the courtroom, Mr Afridi's son Jalil described the ruling as a relief.

"But we will most certainly file an appeal before the Supreme Court to win an outright acquittal," he said.

The human rights group Amnesty International has criticised Mr Afridi's imprisonment, complaining that he has not had proper medical treatment for a heart condition and that the prosecution has not provided compelling evidence against him.