Justice for Sarah Inam — husband gets death over a year after murder

ISLAMABAD: District and Sessions Judge Nasir Javed Rana on Thursday handed down death sentence to Shahnawaz Amir and a fine of Rs1 million in the Sarah Inam murder case. The accused is the son of famous journalist Ayaz Amir.

The court had reserved its verdict on December 9 after hearing all the parties. The case went on for over a year.

Shahnawaz had brutally murdered his Canadian-Pakistani wife Sarah on November 23, 2022 at his Chak Shahzad farmhouse.

Co-suspect Samina Amir, Shahnawaz’s mother, was acquitted of the charges.

Speaking to the media outside the court, Sarah’s father said when his daughter was killed, there were only three people in the house.

He said it was a lie that Shahnawaz’s mother did not know anything and demanded that she should be punished too.

“We have no idea what their problem was with my daughter,” Inam remarked.

He said they found out later that Shahnawaz Amir had married twice, adding that he was a violent person, who deprived his daughter of a lot of money.

Shahnawaz Amir’s only purpose was to gather money from Sarah, Inam claimed.

On Nov 27, Islamabad Judicial Magistrate Umar Shabbir had acquitted Shahnawaz Amir in a case of illegally possessing a Kalashnikov, giving him the benefit of doubt and expressed anger at the faulty police investigation.

As per the written judgment, the court also ordered for issuance of the release orders of the accused in the Kalashnikov recovery case.

The court announced the verdict after the prosecution failed to prove the case against him, as there were many loopholes in the evidence presented in the case.

On Nov 16, the plaintiff’s lawyer Rao Abdul Rahim, while concluding his arguments in the case, had prayed to the court for death penalty for the main accused.