US national who is the son of one of Pakistan's richest families is sentenced to death for raping and beheading diplomat's daughter, 27, after she rejected his proposal

[dalsingh101]

If you click the link at the bottom you can see a video of the poor women trying to escape and being dragged back into the property by the scum's staff:   

 

US national who is the son of one of Pakistan's richest families is sentenced to death for raping and beheading diplomat's daughter, 27, after she rejected his proposal

• Zahir Jaffer brutally murdered Noor Muqaddam at his Islamabad home last year
• Mukadam, 27, the daughter of a former ambassador made attempts to escape
• CCTV footage showed her being stopped from leaving and dragged on the floor 
• The court heard 30-year-old Pakistani-American Jaffer tortured her with a knuckleduster, raped her, and used a 'sharp-edged weapon' to behead her 
• Jaffer comes from respected family. His father is a director of a trading company
• In Pakistan, the conviction rate for violence against women is around 3 percent 

 

 

A US national has been sentenced to death for raping and beheading a diplomat's daughter after she rejected his marriage proposal.

Zahir Jaffer, the son of one of the richest families in Pakistan, brutally murdered Noor Muqaddam, 27, at his home in Islamabad on July 20, 2021.

Security camera footage showed Mukadam, the daughter of a former ambassador, had made repeated attempts to escape the sprawling mansion but was blocked by two members Jaffer's staff.

That footage has been released to the public, and shows Muqaddam trying to flee the compound through a large gate, but being stopped by the staff.

CCTV footage then shows her being dragged by her arm along the floor by a man, through a door and back into the property.

Zahir Jaffer (pictured Thursday leaving court), the son of one of the richest families in Pakistan, brutally murdered Noor Muqaddam, 27, at his home in Islamabad on July 20, 2021

 

Security camera footage showed Noor Mukadam (pictured), made repeated attempts to escape the sprawling mansion but was blocked by staff

 

The court heard that the 30-year-old Pakistani-American tortured her with a knuckleduster, raped her, and used a 'sharp-edged weapon' to behead her.

'The main accused has been awarded the death sentence,' said judge Atta Rabbani at the Islamabad district court.

Jaffer's parents, Zakir Jaffer and Asmat Adamjee, were found not guilty of attempting to cover up the crime.

The two staff members were sentenced to 10 years in prison for abetting murder.

'I am happy that justice has been served,' said Shuakat Mukadam, Noor's father, while pledging 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.

The shocking nature of the murder, involving a couple from the privileged elite of Pakistani society, led to pressure for the trial to conclude swiftly in a country where the justice system is notoriously sluggish and cases typically drag on for years. 

According to the Asma Jahangir Legal Aid Cell, a group providing legal assistance to vulnerable women, the conviction rate for cases of violence against them is lower than three percent.

Targets of sexual and domestic abuse are often too afraid to speak out, and criminal complaints frequently not investigated seriously. 

The case prompted an explosive reaction from women's rights campaigners reckoning with the pervasion of violence against women. Pictured: Women rights activists hold placards and candles during a protest rally against the brutal killing of Noor Mukadam, February 22

 

 

'Convictions have been dismally low for victims... making today's guilty verdict all the more significant,' said Amnesty International South Asia campaigner Rimmel Mohydin.

The court verdict dictates Jaffer be 'hanged by his neck till he is dead', however he was also given a concurrent sentence of 25 years in prison for abduction and rape.

He will also be able to challenge Thursday's verdict.

According to local reports, Jaffer belongs to a high-society family in Pakistan who founded a trading company in 1849 - Ahmed Jaffer and Company.

His father, Zakir, serves as a director of the company, according to his profile on LinkedIn. Jaffer's mother Asmat is reportedly a housewife. 

Executions have rarely been carried out in Pakistan in recent years - and usually only involving terrorism cases - in part due to pressure from the European Union.

The last was in December 2019, according to the Justice Project Pakistan, making it likely Jaffer will only serve jail time, with remissions for religious holidays and good behaviour.

Jaffer was thrown out of court several times during the trial for unruly 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 have the trial suspended.

At one hearing he claimed someone else had killed Mukadam during a 'drug party' at his house.

Shuakat Mukadam, a former ambassador and father of the murdered Pakistani girl Noor Mukadam, speaks to the members of the media as he leaves a court after the case verdict in Islamabad, Pakistan, 24 February 2022

 

When questioning Mukadam's father - a former ambassador to South Korea and Kazakhstan - Jaffer's lawyer implied she was killed by her own family for conducting a relationship outside of marriage.

Prosecutions for violence and sexual assault frequently see the female victim's personal history picked over according to Pakistan's patriarchal mores - another reason why justice is rare for women.

According to a recent report by Human Rights Watch on Pakistan, 'Violence against women and girls – including rape, murder, acid attacks, domestic violence, and forced marriage – is endemic throughout Pakistan. Human rights defenders estimate that roughly 1,000 women are killed in so-called 'honour' killings every year.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10550649/US-national-son-one-Pakistans-richest-families-sentenced-death.html

[Premi]

7 hours ago, dalsingh101 said:

 

According to a recent report by Human Rights Watch on Pakistan, 'Violence against women and girls – including rape, murder, acid attacks, domestic violence, and forced marriage – is endemic throughout Pakistan. Human rights defenders estimate that roughly 1,000 women are killed in so-called 'honour' killings every year.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10550649/US-national-son-one-Pakistans-richest-families-sentenced-death.html

Appropriate use of death penalty if guilty.

A real psychopath. 

How sad and terrible. 

@dalsingh101 we know in UK there have been/are some 'honour killings' by Sikh Panjabis. But these lot and their Arab brothers seem to be at a completely different level. 

It's another example, where I think it suits these lot for the media to group all 'Asian' (refers in British English use to South Asian for those outside the UK) people together. 

[GurjantGnostic]

9 hours ago, Premi said:

Appropriate use of death penalty if guilty.

A real psychopath. 

How sad and terrible. 

@dalsingh101 we know in UK there have been/are some 'honour killings' by Sikh Panjabis. But these lot and their Arab brothers seem to be at a completely different level. 

It's another example, where I think it suits these lot for the media to group all 'Asian' (refers in British English use to South Asian for those outside the UK) people together. 

Absolutely bro. 

[Premi]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-59995097

A month before Noor Muqaddam's murder, Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan was accused of victim-blaming and encouraging misogyny when he suggested that increasing numbers of sex crimes in the country were partly due to women's choice of clothing.

"If a woman is wearing very few clothes, it will have an impact on men unless they are robots," Mr Khan said during an interview with the American TV network HBO.

His remarks angered women and sparked nationwide protests. A thread on Twitter asking survivors to share photos of their dresses and stories of abuse became a top trend.

In his defence, some female parliamentarians from his PTI party said the question had been taken out of context and that he should be judged by the measures his government is taking to empower and protect women......

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-47257309

A court in Pakistan has acquitted the father, brother and uncle of a woman who died in a suspected honour killing last year.

Sana Cheema, 26, lived in Italy but died while visiting her family in Gujrat in April 2018.

She was originally buried without an autopsy - but when exhumed a cause of death was identified as strangulation.

It was widely reported that she had been brought back to Pakistan for an arranged marriage, but refused.

Her friends also alleged Ms Cheema had wanted to marry a Pakistani-Italian man in Italy - a match her family objected to.

Ms Cheema was born in Pakistan, but lived in the northern Italian city of Brescia for most of her life.

After she died during a visit back to her home country, her family blamed natural causes and buried her locally.

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Her death attracted a mass of attention on Italian social media and newspapers there reported it as a suspected honour killing,

After the outpour, Pakistani authorities exhumed Ms Cheema's body. They found her voice box was swollen and a neck bone had been dislocated - suggesting strangulation.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-36479386

Police in the Pakistani city of Lahore have arrested a woman suspected of murdering her daughter for marrying without family consent.

Police say the body of Zeenat Rafiq shows signs of torture. She was doused with fuel and set alight.

Her mother Parveen is accused of luring her back from her in-laws.

It is the third such case in a month in Pakistan, where attacks on women who go against conservative rules on love and marriage are common.

Last week a young school teacher, Maria Sadaqat, was set on fire in Murree near Islamabad for refusing a marriage proposal. She died of her injuries.

A month earlier village elders near Abbottabad ordered the murder of a teenage girl who was burnt to death because she helped a friend to elope, police said.

Zeenat Rafiq, who was 18, had been burnt and there were signs of torture and strangulation, police told BBC Urdu. A post mortem examination may establish if she was still alive when she was set on fire.

Police Superintendent Ibadat Nisar said officers were looking for her brother who is "on the run". Her mother was found in the house with the body.

"Her mother has confessed to the crime but we find it hard to believe that a 50-year-old woman committed this act all by herself with no help from the family members," he said.

Neighbours contacted authorities after hearing screaming, but Ms Rafiq was already dead by the time police arrived, BBC reporter Saba Eitizaz says.

Ms Rafiq and her husband, Hassan Khan, married a week ago through the courts after eloping. They went to live with his family.

"When she told her parents about us, they beat her so severely she was bleeding from her mouth and nose," Mr Khan told BBC Urdu.

"Her family lured her back, promising reconciliation and a proper wedding reception. She was afraid, she said 'they are not going to spare me'. She didn't want to go but my family convinced her. How were we to know they would kill her like this?"