An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Lahore sentenced three people to seven years in prison each for his roles in the honey trap and the kidnapping affair for ransom involving the renowned screenwriter Khalil-Ur-Rehman Qamar.
ATC judge Arshad Javed, the verdict announced on Monday, following the previous decision of the Court to reserve a judgment in the very publicized case.
The three convicts – Amina Arooj, Zeeshan Qayyum and Mamnoon Haider – were found guilty of having attracted Qamar to a private residence under false pretexts, to record it secretly and to orchestrate his abduction for ransom.
Eight other people named in the case – including Hassan Shah, Tanveer Ahmad, Qaisar Abbas, Rasheed Ahmad, Falak Sher, Mian Khan, Yasir Ali and Javed Iqbal – were acquitted due to the lack of evidence.
The case was revealed for the first time in July 2023, when Qamar was removed in Lahore after being invited to Arooj’s apartment on the pretext of discussing a professional project.
He would have been held for Rançon and released several days later. He filed a complaint for the police on July 21, which caused an investigation which led to several arrests.
According to the accusation, the abduction was part of a regime motivated by finance and the Legal team of Qamar had urged the court to impose the death penalty on the guilty recognized.
In related legal development, a request to record a case against Qamar was rejected by a local court in Lahore.
The request was filed by Zainat Bibi, mother of Amina Arooj. During the hearing, owned before the additional judge of the sessions Ilyas Rehan, the lawyer of Qamar, Mudasir Chaudhry, informed the court that the applicant intended to withdraw the request in order to modify the modifications. The court accepted the request, closing the case for the moment.
Meanwhile, the defense offered a contradictory version of events. Arooj’s lawyer said that the director of Qamar initially approached him with a professional proposal, which had become more personal.
It was alleged that Qamar arrived at a second meeting under the influence of alcohol and put pressure on Arooj for a physical relationship, threatening to disclose photographs if she refused.
The defense also argued that Qamar and Arooj had then been removed by Hasan Shah, which was identified as the alleged brain but acquitted later. Arooj also said that she had been tortured by the police and forced to admit that the incident was a honey trap.
