LAHORE: The Supreme Court of Tuesday dismissed appeal of convict Imran Ali against his death penalty awarded in rape-cum-murder case of seven-year-old Zainab Amin of Kasur and maintained his death sentence.
A three-member bench headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa passed the order at the Supreme Court Lahore Registry. Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah were the other members of the bench.
“It has straightaway been noticed by us that when the charge was framed by the trial court against the petitioner, he had pleaded guilty as charged and on that occasion he had got recorded a detailed confessional statement wherein he had admitted almost every aspect of this case alleged against him,” the bench held.
The bench also held: “apart from pleading guilty to the charge and making a confession by the petitioner there were many pieces of evidence brought on the record by the prosecution which proved every word of the confession to be correct and in that regard we may refer to the CCTV footages, photographs, DNA tests and the medical evidence which had confirmed every aspect of the confession made by the petitioner. All such pieces of evidence have convinced us that the confession made by the petitioner was not only voluntary but also true”.
On February 17, 2018, an anti-terrorism court sentenced to death on four counts along with accumulative punishment including 32-year imprisonment and Rs4.1 million fine to Imran Ali convicted of raping and killing seven-year old Zainab Amin of Kasur. Later, the convict challenged his conviction before the Lahore High Court but the high court upheld the trial court’s decision and dismissed the appeal.
