Anti-Terrorists Court (ATC) on Wednesday sentenced four men to death for murdering a pregnant woman bludgeoned to death in Lahore for marrying against her family's wishes. A mob of more than two dozen attackers, among them numerous relatives including the victim's father and brother, battered Farzana Parveen to death with bricks outside the Lahore High Court in May.
"The court today awarded death sentences to four accused - the father, brother, cousin and ex-husband of the victim - for murder and terrorism," prosecutor Rai Asif Mehmood told AFP. Mehmood said the sentences were handed down for three counts - murder, terrorism and the killing of an unborn baby - and the court had also fined each defendant 100,000 rupees ($1,000). The fifth accused in the case, a cousin of Parveen, was sentenced to 13 years' imprisonment, Mehmood said. Defence lawyer Mansoor Rehman Afridi said his clients would appeal. "My clients will appeal against their sentences as we believe that the case had been politicised and the media coverage mounted pressure on us," Afridi told AFP.
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