LAHORE: The Lahore High Court is going to rehear the appeal of a man who was convicted in 2018 for being part of an international nexus of child pornographers.

Justice Farooq Haider suspended the sentence of the convict, Saadat Amin, and allowed his release on bail through a verbal order two days ago.

However, a source in the high court said that since the judge was yet to dictate and sign a written order on the appeal, the matter can be put to rehearing. He said a judge, as per rules, could recall or amend his/her order unless it is signed.

There was an outcry on social media against the relief granted to the convicted child pornographer as the decision was widely reported in the press.

Sources in the judiciary said Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmad had also taken notice of the LHC decision and asked Attorney General Khalid Anwar to look into the matter.

At the Lahore office, Additional Attorney General Ishtiaq A. Khan held a meeting with officials concerned of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) who presented evidence against the convict before the trial court.

Mr Khan went through the entire record of the case as the federal government had already decided to challenge the LHC decision. The attorney general’s office also applied in the high court branch for provision of an attested copy of the decision; however, it came to their knowledge that the written order had not been issued so far.

A statement issued by the attorney general’s office said that no formal order about the release of the convict had been issued.

It said the federal government would vehemently oppose the release of Amin as he had been convicted of committing a most heinous offence.

A judicial magistrate had on April 26, 2018, awarded seven-year imprisonment to Amin of Sargodha under Section 22 of the Prevention of Electronic Crime Act, 2016 and also imposed a fine of Rs1.2 million on him. The cybercrime cell of the FIA had arrested him on a complaint of the Norwegian embassy in 2017.

The prosecution said the convict was an active member of an international racket operating online from Pakistan that engaged children of 10/12 years and sent their pornographic pictures/videos outside the country against monetary benefits.

It said more than 650,000 pictures and videos relating to child pornography were found from the digital media recovered from the convict’s possession.

It said Amin was hand in glove with international child pornographers, namely Jan Lindstrom in Sweden, Giovani Betotti in Italy, Max Hunter in the US, and Andrew Moody and Mukhtar in the UK. The agency produced 11 witnesses against the convict.

Advocate Rana Nadeem Ahmad, the counsel for Amin, told Dawn that he had so far not been informed about rehearing of the matter. He said the appellant had already served about five-year period of his sentence.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2020