Three assassins of Imran Farooq jailed for life

Ag APP

ISLAMABAD: Nearly a decade after Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Dr Imran Farooq was stabbed and bludgeoned to death in London, an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) of Islamabad jailed three men for life and fined them Rs1 million over the murder.

The verdict, which was initially reserved on May 21, was announced by ATC Judge Shahrukh Arjumand on Thursday.

The judgment stated that the three accused, Khalid Shamim, Mohsin Ali and Moazzam Ali, had performed a “distinctive role” in the killing. The verdict stated: “The chain of evidence connects each and every accused who has performed a distinctive role for completing the task.” The court ruled MQM founder ordered the killing of Dr Imran Farooq. It stated accused Moazzam Ali, a senior member working at Nine Zero, the headquarters of MQM, along with accused Khalid Shamim, engaged accused Syed Mohsin Ali and Kashif Khan Kamran for fulfilling the job.

“The two executors were properly facilitated who went with a sole purpose to London for committing the murder and as per pre-planned conspiracy, an innocent person was brutally murdered,” the verdict said. The court also issued perpetual arrest warrants for four accused absconding in the case. Farooq was killed near his apartment in London in September 2010.

Hours after the verdict, British High Commissioner Dr Christian Turner said the conviction was the result of the “team work between the law agencies in the United Kingdom and Pakistan working together to get justice”.

“This ground-breaking legal collaboration, assisted by the British High Commission, meant that evidence gathered by the British police could be shared with Pakistani prosecutors and used in the successful prosecution of Mohsin Ali Syed,” the High Commissioner said in a statement.

Dr Turner said: “It ends an investigation into the death of Dr Farooq, a senior figure within the Pakistani political party Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).” A separate statement issued by the British government termed the teamwork a “ground-breaking piece of collaboration between the UK and Pakistan”, which allowed evidence gathered by the Metropolitan Police to be shared with Pakistani prosecutors and be presented as part of their case.

According to the statement, a formal mutual legal assistance (MLA) request by Pakistan to the UK was made in February 2019. This was followed by a temporary change to Pakistani law which provided that the death penalty would not be used in cases where evidence had been transferred under MLA from a state where the death penalty is prohibited. This was further supported by assurances from the Pakistani authorities that the death penalty would not be imposed in this case.