Four relatives of a pregnant woman who bludgeoned her to death outside Lahore High Court (LHC) were sentenced to death on Wednesday for the crime, their defense lawyer said.
The 25-year-old’s family attacked her because they objected to her marriage. Farzana Iqbal’s murder in May this year. Her father, brother, cousin, and another relative were all sentenced to death and Rs 100,000 fine, said defense lawyer Mansoor Afridi. Another cousin was sentenced to 10 years in prison and also fined Rs 100,000.
The country currently has a moratorium on executions, meaning death row prisoners are effectively sentenced to life imprisonment. The excused were punished under the Anti-Terrorism Act section seven, second under section 302 of the criminal code which outlaws murder and third under section 338C which outlaws murder of a pregnant woman. However, the family will appeal for another trial, defence lawyer Mansoorur Rehman Khan Afridi told a foreign news agency. He said the verdict was “a decision based on sensationalism.” The state prosecutor was not immediately available for comment.
Previously, the ATC was temporarily restrained from concluding the trial in this murder case as its jurisdiction was challenged by Afridi.
Advocate Afridi said it was a case of a court of ordinary jurisdiction of law instead of a special court of law. He said a murder derived from family enmity could not be treated as a terrorism act. However, the five family members were already indicted as suspects by the ATC. Other family members have protested the hearing outside the court, claiming that these men have been wrongly framed in a false murder case.
Farzana’s case attracted attention because it took place on a busy street outside the provincial High Court where she had gone to seek protection. Her family beat her to death with bricks while her husband, Muhammed Iqbal, begged nearby police for help. They did not intervene.
Iqbal later admitted that he had murdered his first wife to marry Farzana. He escaped punishment because his son forgave him. According to Pakistani law, a woman’s next of kin can forgive her murderers.
Since Pakistani women are often killed by their close relations, the loophole allows thousands of murderers to escape without punishment.
In 2013, 869 cases of so-called “honour killings” were reported in the media, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. The true figure is probably higher since many cases go unreported.