A Pakistani court on Friday sentenced the brother of Pakistani social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch to life imprisonment for murdering her, Dawn reported.

The actor-cum-model was killed by her brother in a case of “honour killing” on July 15, 2016. Baloch had become famous through her self-promotion and selfies posted on social media. She had tens of thousands of followers who praised her forthright attitude.

A court in Multan also acquitted six other suspects, including cleric Mufti Abdul Qavi, in the case. Baloch’s brother Waseem Azeem had initially confessed to the crime saying his sister had brought shame on his family, but later changed his plea, BBC reported.

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Her father had filed a case against his son and said that another one of his sons had encouragedWaseem to murder her. Baloch’s parents had initially refused to pardon their son for killing her and had called for capital punishment in the case. But last month, they pardoned their sons and asked the court to dismiss the case.

Also read:

  1. Dismissed as an attention seeker, Pakistani model Qandeel Baloch was right to fear for her life
  2. View from Dawn: Qandeel Baloch is dead because we hate women who don’t conform
  3. View from Dawn: What Burhan Wani and Qandeel Baloch had in common
  4. ‘Only after her murder was Qandeel Baloch praised as a feminist, as a modern Pakistani woman’
  5. Will Pakistan’s liberals ever grow up and learn to embrace ‘bold’ women?

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