A special court in Islamabad on Tuesday sentenced former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to death in a treason case, reported Dawn. Two out of the three judges were in favour of capital punishment.

The case was initiated by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif against Musharraf for imposing a state of emergency in the country on November 2007. It had been pending in court since December 2013.

The three-member special court comprising Chief Justice of the Peshawar High Court Waqar Seth, Justice Nazar Akbar of the Sindh High Court and Justice Shahid Karim of the Lahore High Court will issue a detailed judgment in the next 48 hours. Before issuing its verdict, the court rejected a plea by the prosecutors to delay it, PTI reported.

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Musharraf was indicted on March 31, 2014. The prosecution had tabled the evidence before the special court in September the same year.

The former military chief is currently in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Musharraf has pleaded not guilty and has always claimed that the charges against him were politically motivated. He was admitted to a hospital in Dubai following deterioration of his health earlier this month. From his hospital bed, the former dictator called the treason case “absolutely baseless”.

“I have served my country for 10 years,” Musharraf had said in the video statement. “I have fought for my country. This [treason] is the case in which I have not been heard and I have been victimised.”

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During Tuesday’s hearing, Musharraf’s counsel Raza Bashir sought 15-20 days for his client to record a statement under Section 342 of the Criminal Procedure Code. “Musharraf deserves a right to fair trial,” he said, according to Express Tribune. However, this request was denied.

According to Pakistan’s High Treason (Punishment) Act, 1973, the punishment for high treason is life imprisonment or death. Musharraf’s legal team can approach the Pakistan Supreme Court against the death sentence handed down by the lower court.