PAKISTAN. DEATH SENTENCE CONVERTED INTO LIFE FOR FOUR IN KIDNAPPING CASE

the Sindh High Court, Pakistan, commuted into life imprisonment the death penalty handed down to four people involved in a kidnap for ransom case. Zafar Iqbal, Shaukat Ali, Munir Ahmed and Ali Akbar had been sentenced to death by an Anti-Terrorism Court in Karachi, for kidnapping workshop owner Aslam Lodhi and his five employees for ransom on January 1, 2004. The prosecution alleged that Zafar had invited his employer and five colleagues for a dinner at his residence. They were then given intoxicated food and taken hostage with the aid of accomplices. The four convicts were arrested following a police raid on the premises.