May 9, 2003	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 6, 1424

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RAWALPINDI, May 8: Four persons were sentenced to life imprisonment in a case of kidnapping for ransom on Thursday.

The sentence was handed down by anti-terrorism court No. 2 judge Safdar Hussain Malik.

The convicts had also robbed a South African businessman, Essope Logart, of $3,500 in the jurisdiction of Margalla police station. The court also ordered confiscation of properties of the convicts, Sajid, Faisal, Gul Sharief and Mumtaz.

The court further awarded 10-year rigorous imprisonment each to the four convicts besides, a fine of Rs100,000.

According to the prosecution the convicts had also phoned the family of the victim in South Africa, from one of the public call offices located in Blue Area, Islamabad, and had demanded $21,000 as ransom.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had recovered the victim.

RI AWARDED: Three Afghan nationals were sentenced to one- year rigorous imprisonment each for illegally staying in the country.

The sentence was awarded by civil judge and judicial magistrate Iqbal Haral on Thursday.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs5,000 on each of the convicts, Saeed, Yasin and Latif, who had been booked by Pir Wadhai police under Section 14 of the Foreign Act.

SHOW CAUSE: The same court also issued a show cause notice to the Adiala Jail superintendent for not producing two accused in a narcotics case— Abdul Karim and Umar Rahim— before the court.