ATC hands three death warrants to kidnapper of American aid expert

Hafiz Imran, an al Qaeda member, kidnapped Dr Warren Weinstein in 2011

LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Lahore handed on Wednesday three death sentences to Hafiz Imran, an al Qaeda member convicted of the kidnapping of a US aid worker in 2011, Express News reported.

Dr Warren Weinstein, an American aid expert was kidnapped at gunpoint from his house in Lahore in August, 2011.

Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri had in an audio message confirmed that the elderly USAID contractor was kidnapped by them.

Zawahiri had said that the White House could secure the 70-year-old Weinstein’s release if it halted air strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen, and releases the 1993 World Trade Center bombers and relatives of former al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.