PAKISTAN. SINDH HIGH COURT COMMUTES DEATH PENALTY IN RAPE AND MURDER CASE

the Sindh High Court dismissed the appeal of Imran for rape and murder but commuted his death sentence into life imprisonment. Imran had been sentenced to death sentence on June 24, 2000, by an anti terrorism court in Karachi, Pakistan, for the murder of a young woman and had also been sentenced to life imprisonment for her rape. According to the prosecution, Imran, together with co-accused Rayat Khan, who was in hiding, raped Samina Naz after robbing her house in Kalakot, Karachi, on June 17, 1998. They then killed her by strangulation and set her body on fire. After hearing the appellant’s arguments, the court set aside his conviction for rape but sentenced him to life imprisonment under section 7 (2) of Anti Terrorism Act for ‘creating terror and fear in society’.