An Islamabad trial court on Thursday sentenced Shahnawaz Amir to death for the murder of Sarah Inam and imposed a fine of Rs1 million on him, which would be paid to the bereaved family. The reserved verdict was announced by District and Sessions Judge Nasir Javed Rana, almost a year after the gruesome killing. The court acquitted Shahnawaz’s mother, Samina Shah, who was co-accused in the case. Sarah, a Canadian national, was murdered by Shahnawaz, her husband, the son of journalist Ayaz Amir, in Islamabad a year ago. She was reportedly killed just a day after she arrived in the country from Dubai where she had been working. Shahnawaz was arrested on Sept 23 last year at a farmhouse in Islamabad’s Shahzad Town. He was initially remanded to police custody a day after his arrest and the period of his physical remand was extended several times. His father was discharged from the case and his mother Sameena Shah was granted post-arrest bail in November last year.

On December 5, both Shahnawaz and his mother were indicted in the case. In January, Dr Bushra Ashraf, who conducted Sarah’s post-mortem examination, told an Islamabad court that the victim had multiple fractures on her head. In July, Shahnawaz’s lawyer completed the cross-examination of Sarah’s father and her uncle. Her father Inamur Rahim had ruled out any compromise, which he had also blamed for delays in the case’s conclusion. In October, Investigation Officer (IO) Habibur Rehman testified that Shahnawaz had confessed to the crime. Subsequently, the judge had concluded recording statements of the IO and the prosecution witnesses in the murder case. Concluding his arguments at the previous hearing, the counsel for Sara’s father had sought Shahnawaz’s death sentence and said all the evidence collected in the case proved his guilt.

The case

In September, the police became a complainant in the case, with a first information report (FIR) registered for the murder on the complaint of Shahzad Town Station House Officer (SHO) Nawazish Ali Khan at the Chak Shahzad police station, initially under Section 302 (punishment for murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). Later, police added Section 109 (punishment for abetment, if the act abetted, is committed in consequence and where no express provision is made for its punishment) of the PPC to the FIR and initiated proceedings against Shahnawaz’s parents, Sameena and senior journalist Ayaz Amir. The development came after Sarah’s uncle filed an application with the police, alleging that Shahnawaz had murdered Sarah in connivance with his parents. According to the FIR, the SHO was present on Park Road near Chatha Bakhtawar when he got the information about the murder.

The FIR stated that when the police team reached the farmhouse where the murder had taken place, they were received by the mother of the main suspect who told them that her son had “murdered his wife during a scuffle”. As per the FIR, she informed the police that her son was still present in the house. The police managed to enter the house and detained the suspect, it claimed, adding that the suspect’s hands were “soaked in blood” at the time of the arrest. During the inquiry, the man identified himself as Shahnawaz Amir and told the police that he had murdered his wife with a dumbbell and hid her body in a bathtub in the bathroom, it claimed. Police recovered the dead body on his information, the FIR said, adding that a wound was found on the head of the deceased. The police team also recovered the murder weapon from the house which was “hidden under a bed”, it added. Subsequently, the body was moved to the Poly Clinic for autopsy and the murder weapon and Shahnawaz’s shirt were sent for a forensic audit.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)