MULTAN: Court has sentenced death penalty to Junaid Hafeez to death on blasphemy charges.
The District and Sessions Court Multan on Saturday sentenced university lecturer Junaid Hafeez to death on blasphemy charges.
Former a visiting lecturer at the Department of English Literature of the Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU), Multan, Hafeez was booked on blasphemy charges and was arrested by police on March 13, 2013. The trial of the case started in 2014.
Hafeez has been lodged in the high-security ward number 2 of New Central Jail Multan.
His previous lawyer, Rashid Rehman, was shot dead in May 2017 in his office.
Hafeez’s parents had earlier this year appealed to former chief justice Asif Saeed Khosa to look into their son’s case. They sought justice for their son, fearing for his mental and physical health.
They had said their son had been languishing in solitary confinement in a cell of the Central Jail, Multan, for the last six years on the false charge of blasphemy.
“Due to transfer of many judges, delaying tactics of prosecution witnesses, and difficulties finding adequate legal counsel for the defence because of the sensitive nature of the case, our son continues to await justice in a fabricated case,” Junaid’s parents had said in a written appeal to the chief justice.
With input from INP
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