A sessions court in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Thursday awarded life imprisonment to three people in the infamous 2012 Kohistan video scandal,South Punjab News reported
Judge Shafiullah Jan of Kolai-Palas Kohistan announced the verdict in Bisham amid strict security arrangements, sentencing Mohammad Umar, Saeer and Sabir to life in prison for killing three girls and two men in the name of 'honour'.
Five other accused were acquitted of the charges against them.
The three convicted men are relatives of the slain girls. They were arrested last year by Mansehra police.
All three men had confessed to the murders before the court, lawyer Saboor Khan, who represented the slain men's family, told South Punjab News.
The security inside and outside the court was on high alert during the announcement of the verdict.
In May 2012, a grainy video of four women singing and clapping and a boy dancing had gone viral in the ultra-conservative and remote district of Kohistan. Three of the women in the video clip were then allegedly murdered on a jirga’s orders.
The video was filmed at the home of Afzal Kohistani, who had exposed the honour killing murders before he himself was shot dead in Abbottabad in March this year.
The video ended up claiming seven lives, including that of the three women who appeared in it, and four men, including Afzal Kohistani and his three brothers.
The case was taken up by the Supreme Court on at least three occasions and the killing of the women was established years later.
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