Hafiz Saeed sentenced to 11 years in jail.

LAHORE -- An anti-terrorism court in Lahore sentenced Hafiz Saeed , founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba and chief of the banned Jamaatud Dawa, to 11 years in jail in two terror financing cases on Wednesday. However, sentences of both the cases will run concurrently.

A court official told reporters that Saeed was sentenced in two terror financing cases registered against him in Lahore and Gujranwala cities on the application of the Punjab's Counter Terrorism Department. The court sentenced Saeed to five-and-a-half years and imposed a fine of Rs 15,000 in each case.

Earlier, Saeed and his close aides were indicted by the Lahore ATC in the terror financing cases on December 11.

An official explained that Hafiz Saeed and co-accused professor Malik Zafar Iqbal were awarded five years and six months imprisonment by ATC judge Lahore in FIR NO 32/2019, registered by CTD Gujranwala and five years and six months imprisonment in FIR NO 30/2019 registered against him by the Lahore CTD.

The order says that Saeed is convicted under Section 11-N of Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 and sentenced to five years of rigorous imprisonment along with a fine of Rs10,000, and if he defaults on the fine, he will spend an additional six months in prison. The JuD chief was also sentenced under Section 11-F of ATA 1997, with a punishment of six years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5,000.

'The sentences passed in this case shall run concurrently with the sentences passed in case FIR No 30/2019 dated August 5,2019 under sections 11-F(5)(6), 11-H2,11-I, 11-J and 11-N of Anti-Terrorism Act 1997,' the order further stated.

The JuD leader is facing more than two dozen cases related to terror financing and having a nexus with banned organizations. All the cases were clubbed before the Lahore anti-terrorism courts due to security reasons. Saeed along with others had denied the charges.

The court had indicted the JuD chief and three of his associates - Hafiz Abdul Salam bin Mohammad, Mohammad Ashraf and Prof Zafar Iqbal - on terror financing charges on December 11 last year in a case filed by the CTD police. Saeed and Prof Zafar Iqbal were later indicted in a similar case on December 20. The cases were filed by CTD Lahore and Gujranwala chapters.

Last week, the ATC had deferred announcing its verdict in the terror financing cases and decided to hear arguments on Feb 11 on the suspects' application to hear all cases first before reserving its judgment.

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