Paedophile, child rapist Sohail Ayaz sentenced to death

RAWALPINDI: A court on Wednesday sentenced paedophile and child rapist Sohail Ayaz to death on three counts apart from awarding him three sentences of rigorous imprisonment for abducting and raping young boys and recording the act.

The sentence was handed down by District and Sessions Judge Rawalpindi Jahangir Ali Gondal Sohail Ayaz was also sentenced to life imprisonment on three counts and a fine of Rs 500,000, while his accomplice, Khurram Tahir was guilty of kidnapping children was sentenced to seven years imprisonment and a fine of Rs100,000.

The court handed three sentences of the death penalty Ayaz under section 367-A of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) for deceitfully taking the victims to his house, confining them, administering them with intoxicants and then raping them. He was also ordered to pay Rs500,000 as compensation to the family of each of his three victims.

The court further found Ayaz guilty under sections 337, 337-J and 292-C of the PPC – sodomy and participating and profiting from the recording of and sale of child pornography – and was sentenced thrice to serve life in prison, three sentences of 15 years of rigorous imprisonment and three sentences of spending seven years of rigorous imprisonment.

The court also fined him a cumulative Rs4.5 million. Tahir was handed three seven-year (maximum permitted) prison terms and a cumulative Rs300,000 fine for abducting the victims.

The court noted that Ayaz committed offences against society Despite being highly educated. Ayaz “instead of serving humanity in useful manners, he misused his capabilities in destroying the bright future of minors.:

Ayaz was convicted by a court in the United Kingdom by neither changed his conduct nor reformed himself to become a useful citizen of Pakistan, the judge observed. He said that Ayaz repeatedly raped and exploited innocent children.

The convict had been working on a project for an international gang in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and was apprehended in 2019 by Rawalpindi police.

A police team had traced the accused and the facts came to light after which the Superintendent Rawalpindi Police Rai Mazhar Iqbal, DSP Farhan Aslam and SHO Rawat Malik Kashif arrested the accused.