LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has fixed the hearing of appeals by two convicts in the Sialkot-Lahore Motorway gang rape case against their death sentences.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi and Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh will hear the appeals on April 14. Convicts Abid Malhi and Shafqat Bagga challenged their death sentences through jail appeals.

An anti-terrorism court had on March 20, 2021, awarded death sentences to both besides life imprisonment and multiple jail terms.

Gujjarpura police had lodged the FIR on Sept 9, 2020, under sections 365-A, 392, 376 (ii), 427. 201,34, 337-L2, 337-F1 of the PPC and section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act.

The suspects had sexually assaulted the survivor, a Pakistan origin French woman, in front of her two children after dragging her out from her car that ran out of fuel during late night travel on the Sialkot-Lahore Motorway.

The police had recovered a pistol and a club, used in the crime, from the custody of the suspects besides a recovery of their mobile phones.

Published in Dawn, April 13th, 2025