MULTAN, Pakistan — A Pakistani man who murdered his
celebrity sister was freed on Saturday after a court ruled it was not an
"honor killing", allowing their mother to pardon him, lawyers said.
اضافة اعلان
Qandeel Baloch was strangled to death in 2016 by her brother
Muhammad Waseem, who described her suggestive behavior on social media as
"intolerable".
In response to public outrage,
Pakistan passed legislation
supposedly closing a legal loophole that allowed family members to forgive
those behind so-called "honor killings", imposing a mandatory life
sentence instead.
But after less than six years in prison, an appeal judge
ruled that Baloch's murder could not be defined as a crime of honor, dismissing
his confession.
In line with Pakistan's other laws on murder, the mother was
allowed to grant his freedom.
"Waseem has been released from the prison in compliance
with the order of honorable Lahore High Court," his lawyer Sardar Mehboob
told AFP.
"He is a free man now," he added.
Waseem, 38, was released from jail in the eastern city of
Multan after being acquitted on Monday.
Maleeka Bokhari a female parliamentarian said the government
was "undertaking a review of legal options" against the acquittal.
Earlier Pakistan’s information minister
Fawad Chaudhry had
said the government will challenge the verdict at Pakistan’s top court.
"We as a nation should be ashamed of such (legal)
system," Chaudhry said on Twitter.
Baloch became famous for her flirty and defiant posts which
flew in the face of the nation's deeply patriarchal mores.
Waseem was arrested immediately after her death and later
sentenced to life in prison for strangling her — brazenly telling the media he
had no remorse.
The case became the most high profile "honor killing"
of recent years — where women are dealt lethal punishment by male relatives for
purportedly bringing "shame" to the reputation of a family.
The court's verdict published on Friday said had been
"acquitted from the case on the basis of compromise", saying a
confession from the killer "cannot be considered more than a piece of
paper".
In Baloch's case, her parents initially insisted their son
would be given no absolution, but they later changed their minds and said they
wanted him to be forgiven.
A lawyer for the mother said she had given "her
consent" to pardon him, according to her lawyer Safdar Shah on Monday.
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