US citizen’s ex-husband sentenced to death for her murder

Additional District and Sessions Judge Rawalpindi Muhammad Afzal Majoka on Saturday awarded death sentence and 10 years imprisonment to primary accused Rizwan Habib in the murder case of his former spouse, Pakistani-American Wajiha Swati.

The additional district and sessions’ court passed the judgment with four senior officials of the United States Embassy and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) team present in the court.

The verdict maintained that an American woman was called to Pakistan and killed on the pretext of settling a property dispute worth billions of rupees.

The court in its 53-page verdict declared the murder as the “most heinous crime”, saying no concession could be given to any criminal in the case and that any sort of concession would be “licence to kill”.

The main culprit, Swati’s former husband, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of kidnapping and was fined Rs500,000. He was also sentenced to death on charges of murder and additionally fined Rs500,000.

Rizwan’s father Hurriatullah and employee Sultan were sentenced to seven years in prison for desecrating the corpse and fined Rs100,000 each. Other three accused Zahida Bibi, Rasheed and Zahid Yousuf were acquitted due to lack of evidence.

An American FBI official stated that the verdict was “the best decision”.
According to Swati’s counsel, Rizwan was forcibly occupying his ex-wife’s property worth billions of rupees. He deceived Swati by calling her to Pakistan from the US fearing he would lose the property case.

Swati reached Pakistan on October 16, 2021 from the US. The same night Rizwan along with his father and accomplices abducted her at gunpoint from a house located in a posh area of Morgah Police Station and brutally murdered her.

Later, after mutilating the corpse, they wrapped it in a carpet and transported it to their ancestral village in Lakki Marwat, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and buried it in a pit.

After two days, the deceased's son and nephew registered a case pertaining to her disappearance at the Morgah Police Station following which the ex-husband started looking for Swati along with police and expressed his ignorance about the matter.

Swati’s son and nephew filed a petition in the high court against Rizwan after which he was made part of the investigation on the court’s order. He was subsequently declared innocent by the police. However, with the change of SHO and inquiry by the FBI officials, Rizwan spilled the beans.

Later, the Rawalpindi police recovered the body. The autopsy on Swati’s body was conducted at District Headquarter Hospital Rawalpindi after which it was sent to the US. The American doctors also confirmed that she was brutally murdered.

A total of 30 witnesses testified in the case. Two sisters of the deceased, nephew and an American doctor also recorded their statements via video link from the Pakistani embassies in the US and UK.