On Saturday, a Lahore Anti Terrorism Court sentenced Abid Malhi and Shafqat Ali to death for gang-raping a woman on the Lahore-Sialkot motorway last year.
The verdict, which was reserved on Thursday, was pronounced today by Anti-Terrorism Court Judge Arshad Hussain Bhatt. According to News correspondent Ahmed Faraz, the trial took place in Lahore’s Camp Jail, and Judge Bhatt had heard the proceedings.
The judge arrived at the jail at 5 pm and, after 25 minutes, announced the verdict. This is a landmark decision as it is for the first time that convicts in a gang-rape case have been handed death sentences. Both the culprits were also given a life imprisonment sentence and slapped with a fine of Rs50,000 each. The decision comes six and a half months after the crime took place.
The judgment was announced in the presence of the local magistrate, police officials, the defendant, and the culprits. The culprits will be transferred from Camp Jail to Kot Lakhpat Jail, where the sentence will be carried out. As many as 50 witnesses appeared before the court to record their statements in the case. In 2018, Imran Ali, who was found guilty of raping seven-year-old Zainab from Kasur, was sentenced to death and hanged the same year.
