by Numan Wahab in The News, N0v 20, 2020
LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court on Thursday convicted chief of the banned organisation Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) Hafiz Saeed on charges of terror financing and awarded him 10-and-a-half year imprisonment.
ATC judge Arshad Hussain Bhutta also sentenced Malik Zafar Iqbal, a close aide to Hafiz Saeed, along with Jamaat’s spokesperson Yahya Mujahid and Professor Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki. The court has convicted these JuD leaders in two different cases registered by Counter TerrorismDepartment (CTD) Lahore. The convicts were facing Sections 11-F(2) , 11-N, 11-I, 11-J and others of Anti-terrorism Act in both FIRs.
The court awarded six months jail to Hafiz Saeed under 11-F(2) ATA (being a member of a banned outfit and supporting and arranging meetings of a proscribed organisation) in FIR no 16/2019 registered by the CTD Lahore. In the same FIR, the convict has been awarded five years jail term under Section 11-N ATA (money laundering, illegal fundraising and buying properties from raised funds). Hafiz Saeed has been awarded further five years jail term under 11 (j) of the ATA.
The court has also imposed a fine of Rs110,000 on the convict. In case of default in payment of fine, the convict will undergo further six months jail term.
The court has stated in its orders that all the sentences shall run concurrently and the court has also extended benefit of 382 CrPC to the convict. This means that both convicts will have to undergo only five and a half years jail term and the time of their jail term will start from the date of arrest.
Moreover, Professor Zafar Iqbal and Yahya Mujahid have been sentenced to 10 and a half years imprisonment each, while Professor Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki is sentenced to six months imprisonment in both cases.
According to the details of the cases against the JuD leaders , on July 03, 2019, the top 13 leaders of the JuD were booked in multiple cases for terror financing and money laundering under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) 1997. The CTD, which registered the cases in five cities of Punjab, declared that the JuD was financing terrorism from the massive funds collected through non-profit organisations and trusts including Al-Anfaal Trust, Dawatul Irshad Trust, Muaz Bin Jabal Trust, etc. Furthermore, the CTD during detailed investigations found that they had links with the JuD and its top leadership, accused of financing terrorism by building huge assets and properties from the collected funds in Pakistan. These non-profit organisations were banned in April 2019. Later, on July 17, Hafiz Saeed was arrested from Gujranwala on charges of terror financing by the Punjab CTD. Besides, the top JuD leaders, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Ameer Hamza, Mohammad Yahya Aziz, Mohammad Naeem, Mohsin Bilal, Abdul Raqeeb, Dr Ahmad Daud, Dr Muhammad Ayub, Abdullah Ubaid, Mohammad Ali and Abdul Ghaffar were booked.
However, the JuD leaders claim that they have been nominated in the cases by wrongly attributing them as leaders of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). According to the counsel of the JuD leaders, his clients had quit the LeT before the organisation was banned in 2002. The counsel argued that the cases against his clients have been made on the basis of a link to defunct Al-Anfaal Trust which was formed to construct mosques in the country.
Four cases against Professor Hafiz Muhammad Saeed have been decided so far. A total of 41 cases have been registered by the CTD against the leaders of JuD, out of which 24 have been decided while the rest are pending in the ATC courts. www.thenews.com.pk/print/746325-jud-chief-saeed-sentenced-to-10-year-imprisonment
