7 given life imprisonment, 76 two years in prison each
An anti-terrorism court on Monday awarded death sentence to six and handed life imprisonment to nine as it announced its verdict in Sri Lankan citizen Priyantha Kumara’s lynching case.
Seventy-two others nominated in the case were given two years of jail sentence of each, one person was given a sentence of five years while another was acquitted, Punjab Prosecution Department Secretary Nadeem Sarwar said in a press conference held in Lahore.
Kumara was lynched by a mob comprising hundreds of protesters, including the employees of the factory in Sialkot he was the manager of, on December 3. The mob had tortured him to death and later burnt his body. Judge Natasha Naseem had conducted the trial in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail. The statements of the accused had been recorded under Section 342 of the Code of Criminal Procedures.
Five prosecutors, including Senior Special Prosecutor Abdul Rauf Wattoo, appeared during the trial. The prosecution had made 46 eyewitnesses part of the challan. The details of the fines and sentences are as follows:
* Six convicts awarded death sentence on two counts and payment of Rs200,000 as compensation to the deceased’s legal heirs.