Child killer appeals against his death sentence in Pakistan

LAHORE, Pakistan – A Pakistani prosecutor says the serial child killer who was given the death sentence last week for killing eight children in eastern Punjab province has filed an appeal against his conviction and sentence.

Munir Siyal said on Tuesday that Mohammad Imran filed the appeal in Lahore’s High Court, stating that his trial was conducted in haste. Imran had pleaded guilty during the five-day trial conducted at a prison in Lahore.

A court last Saturday sentenced him to death for killing eight children, including a 7-year-old Zainab Ansari whose rape and murder shocked Pakistan.

Imran was arrested in January, two weeks after authorities say he raped and killed Zainab and threw her body into a garbage dump in the city of Kasur.

The case has also triggered street protests in Kasur.