Father charged over Pakistan stoning death
Farzana Parveen was killed in May as she went to contest an abduction case filed by her family against her husband.
The father of a pregnant Pakistani woman who was stoned to death and four other men have been charged with killing her.
The men, who were charged on Saturday, are accused of killing Farzana Parveen outside a court in the eastern city of Lahore.
Parveen was beaten to death with bricks as she made her way to the court to contest an abduction charge filed by her family against her husband. She is believed to have married against her family’s wishes.
A court indicted the woman’s father, two brothers, a cousin and a man who claimed he had been married to Parveen on charges of murder and torture on Saturday.
All five men deny the charges, according to Mian Zulfiqar, the police investigator.
The trial will begin on Monday with prosecution witnesses, said Zulfiqar.
He said police and doctors who conducted the post-mortem examination of the victim would be among those giving evidence. “We have a strong case against the suspects,” he said.
The case has brought international attention to violence against women in Pakistan, where hundreds of women are killed by relatives each year in so-called “honor killings”.
The killings are carried out by husbands or relatives as a punishment for alleged adultery or other illicit sexual behavior.