ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Monday issued notices to the respondents in a petition of two police officials challenging the trial court’s decision of awarding death sentence to them in the Osama Satti murder case.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani and Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri heard the appeal filed by two former police personnel Iftikhar Ahmed and Muhammad Mustafa.

During the hearing, the petitioners’ lawyer adopted the stance that the decision of the trial court was contradicting the law. He prayed the court to nullify the judgment of the trial court and acquit his client while dismissing their sentence.

Lawyer Zahidullah appeared before the court on behalf of the petitioners, Iftikhar Ahmed and Muhammad Mustafa, and in their petition, they requested the court that the death sentence of police officers, Ahmed and Mustafa may be annulled. He stated that the judgment of the trial court is against the law and should be declared null and void, requesting that the convicted police officials be acquitted.

After hearing the arguments, the bench issued notices and deferred the hearing until March 13.

Last week, a district and sessions court of the federal capital had sentenced accused Iftikhar Ahmed and Muhammad Mustafa to death and three others to life imprisonment in the Osama Satti murder case.

Additional Sessions Judge Zeba Chaudhry awarded death sentence to Iftikhar and Mustafa and imposed Rs0.1m fine on each.

In Osama Satti murder case, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Mustafa, Saeed Ahmed, Shakeel Ahmed, and Mudassar Mukhtar were named accused. The accused named in the case are anti-terrorism police officials.

On January 2, 2021, Osama had gone to drop his friend in Sector H-11. When he was returning, the police officials had intercepted his vehicle in Sector G-10, Srinagar Highway and fired at him from all sides.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023