Pakistani-American sentenced to death for beheading girlfriend Noor Mukadam

Islamabad: A trial court in Islamabad on Thursday sentenced Zahir Zakir Jaffer, the key suspect in Noor Mukadam case, to death for murdering 27-year-old Noor Mukadam in July last year on the eve of Eid Al Adha at his house in Islamabad’s posh residential sector F-7/4.

The court awarded 10-year jail term each to Jaffer’s watchman Iftikhar and gardener Jan Mohammed.

Zahir Jaffer’s, parents Zakir Jaffer and Asmat Adamjee, and cook Jameel, were among the nine (including therapy staff) acquitted by the court.

Zahir Jaffer, 30, was facing charges of raping and beheading Noor Mukadam, his estranged girlfriend after their relationship turned sour.

The gruesome murder shocked Pakistan as well as the human rights bodies and civil society.

On Thursday, when Session Judge Atta Rabbani announced the sentence, Zahir Jaffer, who also holds US citizenship, was visibly shaken.

His domestic staff, watchman and gardener, were given 10-year sentence for silently witnessing the murder taking place.

Shaukat Mukadam relieved

“I am happy that justice has been served,” said Shuakat Mukadam, Noor’s father, while talking to media outside the court. He however pledged to challenge the acquittal of Jaffer’s parents.

The case prompted an explosive reaction from women’s rights campaigners reckoning with the pervasion of violence against women.

Women rights organisations and Pakistan’s civil society that were monitoring the case also hailed the court’s historic judgment after the 8-month trial.

Court unmoved by Zahir’s theatrics

During the eight month proceedings, Zahir Jaffer’s counsel continued to shift the stance while Jaffer too tried to make the court believe he was innocent by cooking up different stories. Jaffer, who will be able to challenge Thursday’s verdict, was thrown out of court several times during the trial for his behaviour.

He was frequently carried into proceedings by stretcher or wheelchair, and his lawyers argued he should be found not “mentally sound” - a manoeuvre prosecutors said was designed to suspend the trial.

At one hearing he acted as if he had mental health issues and kept talking to some invisible person continuously interrupting the proceeding.

At another he claimed someone else had killed Noor Mukadam during a “drug party” at his house.

Yet at another point, he claimed she was killed by her own family for having a relationship outside of marriage.