An Islamabad trial court on Thursday sentenced Shahnawaz Amir to death for the murder of Sarah Inam and imposed a fine of Rs1 million on him.
The court has acquitted Shahnawaz’s mother, Samina Shah, who was co-accused in the case.
On December 9, Sessions Judge Nasir Javaid Rana pronounced the reserved verdict in the case involving the alleged murder of Sarah, a 37-year-old economist, who was reportedly killed with dumbbells by her husband Shahnawaz Amir. Shahnawaz, the son of journalist Ayaz Amir, was apprehended by the police in Islamabad’s Chak Shahzad area, where the incident occurred on September 23, 2022.
Shahnawaz confessed to the murder, attributing it to suspicions of his wife’s alleged infidelity. The couple had been married for only three months. Following Shahnawaz’s confession, arrest warrants were issued for Ayaz Amir and his former wife Sameena Shah, nominated as suspects by Sarah’s family. Ayaz Amir was taken into custody, while Sameena obtained pre-arrest bail.
Sarah’s uncles, Colonel (retd) Ikram and Zia-ur-Rahim, added a Section 109 (punishment for abetment) charge to the police report, accusing Ayaz and Sameena of being complicit in their daughter-in-law’s murder. The petitioners asserted that Sameena resided at the farmhouse where the crime took place.
However, during a hearing on September 27, an Islamabad court dismissed Ayaz Amir from the case due to a lack of evidence implicating him in Sarah’s murder. On February 6, Shahnawaz faced indictment for the illegal possession of a Kalashnikov firearm and pleaded not guilty. Nevertheless, on November 27, the court acquitted Shahnawaz, citing doubts about the prosecution’s evidence and the failure to establish charges against him.
It’s worth noting that a separate case related to the recovery of a Kalashnikov from Shahnawaz was registered by the police. In October, the prime suspect rejected all evidence presented by the prosecution, dismissing it as “baseless.”
