Pak court gives death sentence to Salmaan Taseer's assassin

A Pakistani court has condemed to death the policeman who killed Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer, who had been targeted by hard-liners for his stand against the death penalty for blasphemers.


State television reports that Judge Prevez Ali Shah handed down two death sentences for murder and terrorism to Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, who gunned down Taseer in Islamabad on January 4, 2011.


Qadri, sentenced behind closed doors in a high-security prison in Rawalpindi, now has seven days to file an appeal.


Qadri was part of the security detail provided to Taseer by the Elite Police and confessed to killing the governor over Taseer's calls to amend Pakistan's strict blasphemy law, which allows the death penalty for those convicted of defaming the Prophet Muhammad.


Images of Qadri garlanded with flowers and hailed by the public after his apprehension incensed critics of Pakistan's religious fundamentalists.


Taseer had championed the cause of a Christian woman sentenced to death in a blasphemy case, which arose out of a local dispute.


Justice Syed Pervez Ali Shah, an ATC judge, while taking up the case at the Adiala Jail, noted down the statement of Qadri. In this statement, Qadri admitted before the judge that nobody intimidated him to murder the former governor.
Raja Shujahur Rehman, Qadri’s lawyer, told the media outside Adiala Jail that his client had also submitted a written statement of 40 pages, referring to 11 Quranic verses, 28 quotes from Sunnah and several other eminent Muslim jurists with reference to Islamic jurisprudence.
The defence lawyer stated that the prosecution raised no objection over the statement of Qadri, therefore the court validly admitted this statement and made it a part of the court record.
Experts say that Qadri has to appeal within seven days against the verdict.
Qadri, a constable in the Punjab Police and a member of its Elite Force, tried to justify his murder of the governor by stating that he had killed him for supporting Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman whom Taseer had believed had been wrongly convicted of committing blasphemy.
According to Qadri’s statement, he had approached the governor on the evening of January 4 and tried to talk to him about Taseer’s very public support for Aasia Bibi and his advocacy of reform – not repeal – of the blasphemy laws.