PESHAWAR, Nov 23: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday gave a commuted sentence to a Nigerian woman drug peddler.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Tariq Pervaiz and Justice Abdur Rauf Laghmani adopted a lenient view towards the appellant, Ms Ameena Muhammad, as she is seven months pregnant.

Earlier, she was sentenced by the special judge anti- narcotics to three years imprisonment and fined Rs50,000 in default of which she had to undergo six months more imprisonment. The high court commuted her prison term to the time she had already spent in prison and reduced the fine to Rs6,000.

The appellant was arrested by the Anti Narcotics Force on June 14 at Peshawar International Airport. The ANF had recovered 240 grams of heroin from her possession and had charged her under the Control of Narcotics Substance Act 1997.

As she was expecting a child, she pleaded guilty before the trial court in the hope that the court would adopt a lenient view and award her a minimum possible sentence.

However, the court sentenced her to three years imprisonment following which an appeal was filed on her behalf from the prison.

The appellant has prayed the court that her would-be child should not be punished for the crime which he or she had not committed. Giving birth to a child in prison would not be in the interest of that infant, therefore the court should decide the case on humanitarian grounds, she stated.