Pakistani brothers jailed, for exhuming, eating corpses

A court in central Pakistan on Wednesday sentenced two brothers to 12-year jail terms for eating the flesh from corpses they had removed from graves. Muhammad Anwar-Khan, Police Prosecutor, said the court, which sentenced them under anti-terrorism legislation, also ordered each to pay a fine of 7,100 dollars.


 He said the brothers, 40-year-old Muhammad Arif and Farman Ali, 37, were arrested in Darya Khan town in Punjab province in April after the severed head of a baby was found at their home. Anwar-Khan said this was the second time the pair had been imprisoned for cannibalism. He said they were released from a Pakistani jail in 2013 after serving a two-year term for stealing corpses from a graveyard and eating the flesh.

 Anwar-Khan said during that investigation, they confessed to having cut the legs and feet from the body of a victim and cooked the flesh. He said both were sentenced to the maximum two years in jail for the crime of desecrating graves because Pakistan did not have any laws stating the punishment for cannibals. In the latest case, the pair were tried under anti-terrorism laws to ensure they received a sterner punishment, prosecutors said.