RAWALPINDI: An Additional District and Sessions judge in Rawalpindi on Saturday handed down the death sentence to the main suspect in the US-Pakistan woman, Wajiha Swati, murder case.
Rizwan Habib, the main accused and ex-husband of the victim, was present in the court as the judge read the verdict.
The court also awarded seven years prison sentence each to Rizwan’s father Hurriyatullah, and their employee Sultan. The court, however, exonerated accomplices Zahida Bibi, Rasheed and Zahid Yousuf in the high-profile murder.
Ealier, the court indicted all six accused in the murder case of Pakistani-American woman Wajiha Swati.
Habib tricked Wajiha into travelling to Pakistan to settle property issues in October 2021. Once she landed in Pakistan in October 2021, he kidnapped her and murdered her with his accomplices before transporting the body to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to hide in a pit.
Later, the Mograh police retrieved the body and later it was sent to the US for burial.
Wajiha Swati arrived in Pakistan on October 16, 2021, from the US via the United Kingdom to settle a property dispute with her ex-husband Rizwan Habib. According to police, Wajiha Swati was first abducted by her ex-husband and later killed.
Rizwan Habib remained involved part of the investigation for two months before police formally arrested him on December 22 last year.
After an autopsy, police obtained samples from the slain woman’s body for a DNA test. After confirmation of the DNA test, the body was handed over to heirs in the US.
