Pakistani court acquits brother convicted of murdering social media starlet 

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani court on Monday acquitted slain social media sensation Qandeel Baloch’s brother who was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering her, local media reported.
Qandeel, 26, whose real name was Fauzia Azeem, shot to fame through her videos on social media. She was found dead at her parents’ home in Multan in 2016.
In 2019, a Multan court sentenced her brother, Waseem Baloch, to life imprisonment. He had since been serving his sentence at the Multan Central Jail.
Waseem’s lawyer appealed his conviction in the Lahore High Court’s Multan bench. In Monday’s hearing, his counsel argued the trial court ignored the affidavit submitted by Qandeel’s parents, which stated they had forgiven the accused, SAMAA TV reported.
“The father of the victim has died,” the report quoted Waseem’s lawyer as contending.
“The witnesses in the case have also deviated from their statements in the trial court,” he said, requesting the court to quash the sentence.
Justice Sohail Nasir acquitted Waseem after listening to the arguments.
A detailed verdict issued by the trial court in 2019 said the prosecution successfully proved its case beyond shadow of reasonable doubt through cogent, convincing and inspiring evidence against the accused for committing qatl-i-amd (willful murder) of his sister Fouzia Azeem alias Qandeel Baloch in shape of proving his presence at the place of occurrence, in shape of judicial confession corroborated with positive results of his DNA, according to the report.
“He is held guilty of committing qatl-i-amd of his sister,” the verdict read.
At the time, Qandeel’s brother Waseem confessed to having killed her “because she brought dishonor to the Baloch name” with her social media videos and statements.
The court had freed five other suspects, including cleric Mufti Abdul Qavi, Qandeel’s brother Aslam Shaheen, Haq Nawaz, Abdul Basit and Mohammad Zafar Hussain, in the case.
In August 2019, Qandeel’s parents submitted an affidavit in the court, stating they had forgiven the killers and wanted the case against their sons to be disposed of.
The affidavit mentioned that the Anti-Honour Killing Laws (Criminal Amendment Bill) 2015 — which prevents killers from walking free after being pardoned by the victim’s relatives — was passed months after Qandeel was murdered and can, therefore, not be applied to her murder case.