Hafiz Saeed: Leader of banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa sentenced to 31-and-a-half years in prison in two terrorism financing cases
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Lahore anti-terrorism court has sentenced Hafiz Saeed, leader of the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa, to a total of 31-and-a-half years in prison in two cases on charges of financing terrorism.
He has been sentenced to 15 and a half years imprisonment in one case and 16 and a half years imprisonment in the other while a total fine of ''Rs. 340,000 has also been imposed on him.''
The Punjab Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) had registered cases against Hafiz Saeed.
Hafiz Saeed is already in jail and serving his sentence in various cases.
What is stated in the judgment?
The court said that the accused Hafiz Saeed (Amir of banned Lashkar-e-Taiba), Zafar Iqbal, Abdul Ghaffar, Amir Hamza and Hafiz Masood are members of banned organization called Lashkar-e-Taiba and trustee of the banned organization called Al-Dawa wa Al-Arshad.
The verdict said that the accused, as members and trustees, had acquired land in Mian Channu for Lashkar-e-Taiba's sub-organization Al-Dawa wa Al-Arshad.
According to the court, the land was transferred to the organization by a person named Ghulam Hassan son of Muhammad Sadiq, although the person knew that the organization was involved in terrorist activities and the property would be used for terrorist purposes. With the acquisition of this land, Al-Dawa and Al-Irshad can raise funds for terrorism and terrorists.
The court also convicted a man named Ghulam Hassan for providing land to the said organization while the co-accused including Hafiz Saeed were also convicted for raising money for terrorist activities through land.
In the first case Hafiz Saeed was sentenced to a total of 15 years and six months imprisonment under various provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act in 21/2019 while in the second case 90/2019 was sentenced to a total of 16 years and six months imprisonment.
''It should be noted that Hafiz Saeed has been sentenced several times before by the anti-terrorism court.''
In November 2020, the Lahore Special Anti-Terrorism Court had sentenced Hafiz Muhammad Saeed to three and a half years in prison and fined him 110,000 rupees on three different charges.
The court had convicted Hafiz Saeed and his two accomplices Zafar Iqbal and Yahya Mujahid on two separate charges of raising funds for the banned organization and illegal possession.
In addition, in February 2020, a special anti-terrorism court sentenced Hafiz Saeed, head of the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa, to a total of 11 years in prison in two cases.
Hafiz Saeed and other leaders of his organization were indicted in November 2019.
At the time, Hafiz Saeed and other leaders of his organization denied the allegations, calling the allegations against him baseless and claiming that the allegations were made because of international pressure.