Court gives Death Sentence to Shahnawaz Amir in Sara Inam case

Additionally, Sessions Judge Nasir Javaid Rana fines the accused Rs. 1 million.

ISLAMABAD: In the murder case of Sarah Inam, an Islamabad district and sessions court on Thursday sentenced accused Shahnawaz Amir to death and levied a Rs. 1 million fine.

The verdict was reserved and delivered last week on December 9 by Sessions Judge Nasir Javaid Rana.

Nevertheless, for lack of proof, the court cleared Samina Shah, the mother of the Shahnawaz family. She was named co-accused in the case after the sessions court indicted her in December of last year

Three different judges presided over the case’s hearings during its more than a year-long proceeding. Judge Islamabad’s Additional Sessions The murder case was also heard by Azam Khan and Muhammad Atta Rabbani.

On September 23, 2022, in Islamabad’s Chak Shahzad neighborhood, Sarah, a 37-year-old economist, was allegedly murdered with dumbbells by her husband Shahnawaz Amir, the son of journalist Ayaz Amir.

After being arrested by the police from a farmhouse in the Chak Shahzad neighborhood of Islamabad for being a suspect in his wife’s murder, Shahnawaz admitted to killing her and claimed he “thought” his wife was having an affair. Just three months passed during the couple’s marriage.

After receiving a suspect nomination from Sarah’s family, a trial court granted the arrest warrants for Ayaz Amir and his ex-wife Sameena Shah the following day. Amir was taken into custody, and his ex-wife was later granted pre-arrest bail.

Sarah’s uncles, Colonel (retd) Ikram and Zia-ur-Rahim, requested that Section 109 (punishment for abetment) be added to the police report that was filed after the murder. They have accused Ayaz and his former wife of being responsible for the death of their daughter-in-law.

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According to the petitioners, Sameena was residing at the farmhouse where Sarah was killed.

On September 27, however, Ayaz Amir was dismissed from the case by an Islamabad court, stating that there was “no evidence” linking him to Sarah’s murder.

Shahnawaz entered a not guilty plea to the charge of having a Kalashnikov handgun that was obtained illegally after being charged on February 6.

On November 27, however, Shahnawaz was exonerated in the case by the court and given the benefit of the doubt. Citing “doubtful” evidence, the court emphasized the prosecution’s inability to substantiate its allegations against the accused.

It should be mentioned that the recovery of a Kalashnikov from the suspect was the subject of a separate police case.

October of last year saw the prime suspect declare all of the evidence against him to be “baseless” and reject it.