LAHORE, April 20: A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Friday commuted death sentence of former ambassador of Congo, Husain Mubaka, to life imprisonment in a narcotics case.

The Anti-Narcotics Court of Lahore had handed him down death sentence with Rs50,000 fine for smuggling 18 kilograms of heroin on July 8, 2003.

The LHC bench observed that the appellant was a former ambassador. There was no material to prove that he had been involved in the past in any heinous offence like narcotics smuggling. The bench gave him the benefit of the doubt and commuted his sentence.

The appellant pleaded that the suitcase from which the heroin was seized did not belong to him. Moreover, the prosecution could not produce any evidence to prove that the suitcase was in his possession at the time of seizure. The court agreed to his argument.

The Airport Security Force (ASF) claimed to have arrested Mubaka at Lahore airport with heroin on Oct 20, 2000.