Guard sentenced to life for raping foreign official

Local court announces verdict nine months after the incident

ISLAMABAD:

A local court in Islamabad has sentenced the accused security guard of a private company, who raped a foreign official in the federal capital, to life imprisonment.

In its verdict, the court said that the duration of life imprisonment will be till the end of the life of the accused.

Additional Sessions Judge Humayun Dilawar pronounced the verdict after nine months after the incident which occurred in June 2022. Public Prosecutor Rana Hassan Abbas prosecuted the case.

During the trial, through a video link, the expatriate official also recorded her statement, in which she confirmed the rape.

In addition to this, the DNA was also matched, following which the court sentenced accused Muhammad Safir to life imprisonment.

Safir, the guard of the private security company, was on duty at the foreign woman's house at the time of the incident. The accused had raped the foreign official in her house on June 6 last year.

The foreign lady was attached to a United Nations subsidiary in Islamabad. She accused the security guard of her house of rape and adopted the stance that the security guard entered her bedroom at night and raped her.

“I was trying to sleep in my bedroom when suddenly I felt someone’s presence. I turned around but there was nothing. Just as I tried to sleep a man fell over me and raped me. His voice seemed familiar and when I told him I want to go to the bathroom. I turned on the light and saw his face. He was my security guard,” she had told the police.

The FIR of the case was registered at Aabpara police station. The culprit fled the scene after the incident and was arrested by the police a few days later.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 12^th, 2023.