An Islamabad court on Tuesday sentenced Umar Hayat to death in the high-profile murder case of TikToker Sana Yousaf.
The verdict was announced by Judge Afzal Majoka after the completion of arguments from both the prosecution and defense in the widely followed case.
According to the court’s short order, Umar Hayat was also sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for trespassing into Sana Yousaf’s residence by scaling the wall. The court further handed him another 10-year sentence on robbery charges along with a financial penalty.
The convict was fined Rs2.5 million in total. The court ruled that failure to pay the fine would result in an additional one-year jail sentence.
While delivering the verdict, Judge Afzal Majoka observed that the prosecution had successfully proven its case against the accused, while the defense failed to establish his innocence before the court.
During the hearing, Umar Hayat was presented before the court under strict security arrangements. Prosecutors submitted call records and chat screenshots as evidence allegedly linking the accused to the crime.
Counsel for the complainant urged the court to award the death penalty twice to the convict, citing the seriousness of the offense.
The defense counsel argued that the accused had earlier expressed no confidence in the trial court and noted that two related petitions were still pending before the Islamabad High Court. The defense also maintained that awarding capital punishment on the basis of personal hostility would be unfair.
The court, however, rejected the arguments and proceeded with the verdict. Judge Afzal Majoka also expressed displeasure during the proceedings after the defense argued that the matter should not be influenced by social pressure or turned into a wider debate regarding women in society.
The judge observed that more than 50 hearings had been conducted in the case and that the prosecution had presented 27 witnesses during the trial.
