Pakistan Supreme Court on Monday rejected 17 appeals for stay on death row sentences from military courts, including those who were convicted for attacking Peshawar Army School in 2014.
The 32 death row convicts were also involved in jail breaks, kidnapping for ransom, attacks on security personnel and other terrorist activities, Geo TV reported.
The 182-page verdict by the top court said that military courts were established through the Army Act. It said that the accused were given the right to defend themselves, and the verdict by the military court did not find any irregularities. "This is not a case of insufficient evidence," it read.
Renowned lawyer Asma Jehangir had challenged the military court judgment in the apex court. The petitioners had pleaded that they had been denied their right to fair trial. They added they were not handed out copies of the judgment announced by the higher court.
On December 16, 2014, Tehreek-e-Taliban terrorists attacked the Army Public School in Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and killed over 150 people, mostly children.
--IANS
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