A special Lahore court set up to deal with gender-based violence on Friday sentenced to death a man for the rape of a female medical student. Announcing the court’s first sexual violence-related verdict of the year, additional sessions judge Rehmat Ali handed the convict Waqas Khalid a life sentence and a fine of Rs0.5m. A first investigation report of the crime was filed at Lahore’s Quaid-i-Azam industrial area in 2016. According to the investigation, the young woman was kidnapped, raped and then released by the convict. The case was registered after a medical examination of the victim was conducted at a private hospital. According to the verdict, the crime was proven through witness accounts and the government-appointed lawyer’s arguments. Following the verdict, the convict was escorted out of the premises amid tight security. Published in Daily Times, January 19th 2019.