Pakistan court sentences man to death over woman's beheading
A Pakistani court has sentenced a man from a prominent industrialist family to death, after finding him guilty of murder for beheading a childhood friend who had refused to marry him
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Your support makes all the difference.A Pakistani court sentenced a man from a prominent industrialist family to death on Thursday, after finding him guilty of murder for beheading a childhood friend who had refused to marry him. The ruling will likely be appealed.
The killing of Noor Mukadam by Zahir Jaffar last year shocked the country and drew nationwide condemnation, with the subsequent trial widely covered in the media. The verdict was quickly hailed by civil society groups.
The prosecution had alleged that Jaffar, 30, had a long-running friendship with Mukadam, 27, the daughter of a diplomat, but she rejected his romantic advances.
In an episode at Jaffar's home in an upscale area of the capital, Islamabad, last July, they said that Mukadam leapt from a window when Jaffar refused to accept her rejection, but he ordered a security guard and a cook to capture her before he killed her. A video that surfaced on social media at the time showed Jaffar dragging her back to his home.
Jaffar raped Mukadam before brutally murdering her, police said in reports submitted to the court during the trial. Mukadam had gone to Jaffer's house to say goodbye as she was planning to travel abroad.
The court also sentenced two domestic workers to ten years' prison time each for complicity in the killing.
Mukadam's family and friends along with human rights activists organized a movement around her death, demanding justice and holding candlelight vigils, and launching a social media campaign, #justicefornoor.
The trial shed light on the pervasiveness of violence against women in Pakistan, which usually affects the lower and middle classes. Hundreds of women are killed in Pakistan each year in similar cases, and the numbers of those subjected to violence and sexual assaults are growing.
Mukadam’s father, Shaukat Ali, welcomed the verdict, saying he would issue a detailed statement after reading the court's ruling fully. There was no immediate comment from Jaffar's family.
During the trial, Jaffer's lawyer portrayed him as mentally unstable, with the defendant often seen unkempt in the courthouse and occasionally shouting at court personnel.