Noor murder case: US officials meet death row inmate

Officials of the US Embassy in Islamabad met with Zahir Jafar, a death row inmate in the Noor Muqadam murder case, at the Adiala Central Jail on Tuesday.

According to sources, the convict demanded access to lawyers and vegetarian food during the meeting with US officials. The head of the US delegation, Mitchell P Murphy, also gifted two books to the inmate.

Jail authorities said the three-member American delegation, which included the consul, Mitchell P Murphy, the security and operational officials of the embassy, Osama Hanif, and Qaiser Malik, approached Zahir Jaafar through the consular office of the American Embassy.

They said the officials reached the jail at around 1:15pm and met Zahir Jafar for about half an hour.

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During the meeting, the US Consul inquired about Zahir Jafar's health, accommodation, and facilities in the jail.

Zahir Jafar demanded from the American delegation to allow him to meet his lawyers. Earlier this year, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) not only upheld the capital punishment awarded to Zahir Jaffer by a trial court but also turned his life imprisonment into a death sentence in a case relating to the rape and murder of Noor Mukadam.

The verdict, issued by a two-member divisional bench comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan, was reserved on appeals filed against the punishment awarded to the convicts and acquittal of co-accused for the killing of the 27-year-old woman.

In its judgment, the IHC dismissed not only Zahir’s but also the pleas of his domestic help Mohammad Iftikhar and Mohammad Jan — both co-accused in the case — who had challenged the verdict of the trial court.

He earlier received a 25-year imprisonment sentence with hard labour and a fine of Rs0.2 million after the rape was proven.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 22^nd, 2023.