Pakistan soldier to hang for murder caught on film

A Pakistani court Friday found a paramilitary soldier guilty of murder and sentenced him to death for killing an unarmed man at point blank range in an incident caught on camera in a public park. Lawyers said it marked the first time that a civilian court in Pakistan has sentenced to death a serving member of the military. Although the Rangers paramilitary technically comes under the supervision of the interior ministry, it is considered part of the powerful armed forces, which has ruled the country for more than half its existence. The June 8 killing of Sarfaraz Shah, 22, was filmed by a cameraman and broadcast on television, sparking a backlash over the brutality of trained officers in a country awash with violence blamed on the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Judge Bashir Ahmed Khoso read out the verdict before an anti-terrorism court in Karachi, finding 35-year-old Shahid Zafar guilty of pulling the trigger, and sentenced him to death and a fine of 200,000 rupees ($2,300). "The crime of killing Sarfraz Shah has been proved against you and I announce the death sentence and also impose a fine of 200,000 rupees," said Khoso, addressing Zafar. He handed life terms to five other paramilitary soldiers and a civilian who had accused Shah of robbery and dragged him over to them. The judge ordered each to pay 100,000 rupees to the victim's family. The verdict concludes a swift trial after the seven defendants were charged with murder and terrorism on June 29, just weeks after the killing. There was a euphoric reaction from the prosecution and the victim's family, but the defence vowed to appeal the sentences. "The decision is historic, it shows no one is above the law," government prosecutor Mohammed Khan Buriro told reporters. "The Rangers as an institution was not involved in the murder, and it proved in the court proceedings it was the culprits' own act," he said. "My family is extremely relieved with the verdict. We have got justice," said Salik Shah, brother of the victim. So extreme was the public and media outrage to the killing that the government also took the rare step of removing the provincial chiefs of police and Rangers in Karachi. The widely-aired footage of the killing showed a clean-shaven and unarmed Shah, wearing black trousers and a navy shirt, pleading for his life before he is shot twice. He then begs for help while the soldiers appear to do nothing but watch him lapse gradually into unconsciousness. Despite no evidence in the video that Shah was armed, Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik, whose ministry is responsible for the Rangers, had claimed that the victim had been carrying an unlicensed weapon. More than 10,000 paramilitary troops patrol Karachi, Pakistan's financial capital, and its surroundings to combat routine violence but rights activists say they are neither equipped nor trained for civilian areas. The last court to sentence to death a member of the military for murder was a military court martial in 1992. Fifteen army personnel were court-martialled over the cold-blooded murders of nine members of a family in a land dispute in the southern district of Hyderabad. Captain Arshad Jamil, the main accused, was executed four years later. The remaining convicts, all non-commissioned officers, were jailed for life. Pending lengthy appeals in Pakistan, there is a significant lag between the number of people sentenced to death and the number of people executed. According to Amnesty International, for example, 1,184 people were sentenced to death from 2007 to 2010, while 171 people were executed in the same period. "Pakistan is the country where such a large number of people are waiting on death row," said Sarim Burney, a rights activist from Pakistan's Ansar Burney Welfare Trust. "More than 8,000 people are on death row in Pakistan, including people sentenced 20 years ago and their appeals in the courts have not been decided because of lengthy legal procedures," Burney said.