Mumtaz Qadri gets death sentence in Taseer murder case

Pakistan

Mumtaz Qadri gets death sentence in Taseer murder case

Close

Anti Terrorism Court announced death sentence to Mumtaz Qadri in governor Punjabs murder case.

30 September,2011 11:21 pm

An Anti Terrorism Court on Saturday found Mumtaz Qadri, a police commando, guilty of murder and sentenced him to death for killing former governor Punjab who had urged reform in blasphemy law said a defence lawyer.Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, one of Punjab governor Salman Taseers bodyguards, was charged with terrorism and murdering the man he was supposed to be protecting in Kohsar Market Islamabad on January 4 this year.Qadri confessed to killing Taseer, saying he objected to the politicians calls to amend the blasphemy law, which mandates the death penalty for those convicted of defaming the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).The court has awarded my client with death. The court announced the death sentence for him, Shuja-ur-Rehman, one of Qadris lawyers, told an international news agency by telephone.Judge Pervez Ali Shah announced the verdict at an anti-terrorism court behind closed doors in the high-security Adiyala prison in Rawalpindi, the lawyer said.Dozens of people rallied outside the prison where the verdict was announced, chanting slogans in support of Qadri, an eyewitness said.The judge has also ordered him to pay a fine of 200,000 rupees, the lawyer said. Shuja-ur-Rehman said soon he will lodge an appeal in a high court against the verdict.The killing of the reformist Taseer was the most high-profile political assassination in Pakistan since former prime minister Benazir Bhutto died in a gun and suicide attack in December 2007.Taseer had supported a Christian mother of five sentenced to death in November 2010 for alleged blasphemy in the central province of Punjab.A minority minister who had vowed to defy death threats over his opposition to Islamic blasphemy laws was shot dead in March, 2011.The minority politician, who had complained of death threats, was gunned down as he left his mothers home in a residential area of Islamabad.While no-one has ever been sent to the gallows under Pakistans blasphemy law, activists say it is used to attack others out of personal enmity or business disputes.Since Taseers assassination, right-wing religious clerics have heaped praise on his killer and stoked controversy over reform of the law. The government has said it has no plan to reform the law.