Islamabad harassment case: Court sentences Usman Mirza, 4 others to life in prison

• Islamabad court sentences Usman Mirza, four others to life imprisonment and acquits two accomplices.
• All accused, including Mirza, were presented in court during hearing.
• Judge questions accused Farhan Shaheen during hearing. 

ISLAMABAD: Usman Mirza — the main accused in the Islamabad couple harassment case — has been sentenced to life imprisonment by an additional sessions court in Islamabad.

Additional Sessions Judge Atta Rabbani sentenced four others to life imprisonment as well and acquitted two accomplices. All the accused, including Mirza, were presented in court during the hearing.

The sessions judge questioned one of the accused, Farhan Shaheen, on whether he was present when the incident took place. To this, Shaheen replied with a "no" and said: "I am innocent and I was not present at the place of incident." 

After that, the court ordered the police to take the accused back.  

After the hearing, the judge awarded life imprisonment to Usman Mirza, Hafiz Atta ur Rehman, Adaras Qayyum Butt, Farhan Shaheen, and Mohib Bangash.

Meanwhile, Umar Bilal and Rehan Hassan Mughal were acquitted.

The case

Last year, in July, a video surfaced on social media in which the main accused in the case, Mirza, could be seen violently thrashing and harassing a young couple in a room full of other men.

Within a few hours of the video going viral, the Islamabad police took Mirza into custody and registered a first information report (FIR) in the case.

Later on, seven people, including Usman Mirza, were indicted in the Islamabad couple harassment case.