World News | Pak Court Acquits 3 Convicts Serving Life Term in Child Sex Abuse Case
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. A Pakistani high court on Wednesday acquitted three convicts serving life imprisonment in connection with a child sex abuse scandal that shook the nation in 2015.
Lahore, Dec 13 (PTI) A Pakistani high court on Wednesday acquitted three convicts serving life imprisonment in connection with a child sex abuse scandal that shook the nation in 2015.
In 2018, an anti-terrorism court in Lahore sentenced Haseem Amir, Wasim Sindhi, and Aleem Asif to life imprisonment after finding them guilty.
The scandal surfaced eight years ago in Kasur district, some 50 km from Lahore. It allegedly involved an organised crime ring that sold child pornography to porn sites and blackmailed and extorted victims and their relatives.
Hundreds of children were sexually abused and filmed, and the videos were used to blackmail their families. The majority of the victims were around 14 years of age.
The scam was a series of child sexual abuses that occurred in Hussain Khanwala village in Punjab from 2006 to 2014, culminating in a major scandal in 2015.
The scandal caused nationwide outrage. Following the unfolding of the criminal act, people across Pakistan and beyond took to the streets demanding strict action against the culprits.
According to police, over 400 pornographic videos of around 300 children were recovered. Cases were registered against 25 individuals on charges of abduction and sexual assault of an estimated 280 to 300 children, most of them male.
Of the total 25 suspects, 20 were acquitted while five -- two in 2016 and three in 2018 -- were handed down life imprisonment by the trial court.
"On Wednesday, the Lahore High Court acquitted three convicts -- Haseem Amir, Wasim Sindhi, and Aleem Asif -- of Kasur child sex scam due to want of evidence," a court official said, adding that the forensic examination of the videos failed to conclusively identify the three accused.
A two-member bench headed by Justice Shehram Sarwar Chaudhry delivered the verdict on the appeals of the accused.
It was alleged that some influential people related to the then-ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party were involved in the cover-up of the scandal.
In 2016, Pakistan Senate passed a bill that criminalised sexual assault against minors, child pornography and trafficking for the first time -- previously only acts of rape and sodomy were punishable by law.
Under the revised legislation, sexual assaults are punishable by up to seven years in prison.
Likewise, child pornography, which was previously not mentioned in the law, is punishable by seven years in prison and a fine of PKR 700,000.
The amendment to the penal code also criminalises child trafficking within Pakistan. Previously traffickers were only liable for punishment if they removed children from the country.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)