Ex-minister's son sentenced to death in Pakistan

A Pakistani court has handed down a death sentence to a former minister's son for killing three transgender persons in Punjab province in 2008.

A district and sessions court of the Sialkot district announced the verdict on Tuesday after the prosecution presented all witnesses and evidence.

Ahmed Bilal Cheema, son of former Punjab Minister Ajmal Cheema, had shot dead the transgenders --Mazhar Hussain, Aamir Shahzad, and Abdul Jabbar-- at his outhouse in Sialkot in 2008.

Judge Jazila Aslam sentenced the convict to death on three counts and ordered payment of PKR 500,000 to the relatives of each of the victims as compensation.

The convict would face imprisonment for another six months in case of nonpayment of the compensation amount.

According to the police, Cheema had called the transgender persons at his outhouse for a dance party and opened fire at them when they refused some of his and his friends' demands, killing them on the spot.

Cheema later managed to flee to the United States and when he returned to Pakistan in July of this year, the police arrested him at the airport, and subsequently, the trial began.

According to a police officer, the Cheema family offered blood money to the relatives of the victims but they refused.