Elon Musk motorway case remarks drew attention after he praised Pakistan over a Lahore High Court ruling that upheld death sentences in the 2020 motorway gang-rape case.
Musk reacted on X after the court rejected appeals by Abid Malhi and Shafqat Ali, who were convicted in the attack on a French-Pakistani woman on the Lahore-Sialkot Motorway in Punjab. He wrote, “Bravo Pakistan.”
A Lahore High Court bench dismissed the convicts’ appeals and upheld the Anti-Terrorism Court’s 2021 verdict. The bench was headed by Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi.
The trial court had sentenced both men to death after finding them guilty of rape, kidnapping, robbery and terrorism-related charges. APP reported in 2021 that the Anti-Terrorism Court also handed down life imprisonment for kidnapping and confiscated their property.
The case began in September 2020 after the woman’s vehicle became stranded on the motorway while she was travelling with her children. Investigators relied on DNA evidence, mobile phone data and witness identification during the case.
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The ruling renewed international attention on one of Pakistan’s most widely condemned criminal cases. Musk also wrote that the sentence was right for such an act.