Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has hailed a Pakistani court’s decision to uphold the death sentences of two men convicted in the 2020 Lahore-Sialkot motorway gang-rape case. The verdict drew his praise on X and renewed global attention to one of Pakistan’s most high-profile sexual assault cases.
Reacting to the ruling, Musk called the decision a positive step for justice. His post came after Pakistan’s Lahore High Court dismissed the convicts’ appeals and upheld the punishments a trial court had awarded.
“Bravo Pakistan! This is what we should be doing in the West,” Musk posted on X.
The exchange began after British Member of Parliament Rupert Lowe shared an update on the verdict, writing, “Some good news to come out of Pakistan.”
The Lahore High Court dismissed the appeals on Wednesday. The two convicted men, Abid Ali alias Malhi and Shafqat Ali alias Bagga, had challenged the trial court’s verdict. A two-member bench comprising Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi and Justice Tariq Mehmood Bajwa delivered the ruling after hearing arguments from both sides. A court official confirmed that the convictions and sentences remained unchanged.
The case dates back to September 2020. A 32-year-old French woman of Pakistani origin was traveling with her three children on the Lahore-Sialkot Motorway in Punjab province. According to news agency PTI, her vehicle ran out of fuel near Lahore, leaving the family stranded on the roadside. Two armed men then broke into the vehicle, robbed the woman, and dragged her to a nearby field. There, they raped her at gunpoint in front of her children. The brutal assault shocked the country and drew widespread condemnation from rights groups, political leaders, and the public.
In March 2021, an anti-terrorism court in Lahore had sentenced both men to death. Besides the death penalty, the court imposed life imprisonment and multiple other jail terms. Investigators had identified the suspects using DNA evidence, matching samples to blood stains found at the crime scene. Police arrested both men after a countrywide manhunt that lasted over a month.
The crime triggered nationwide outrage. Public anger intensified after Lahore police chief Umer Sheikh questioned why the woman had traveled at night without a male companion. The protests pushed the government to introduce tough new anti-rape legislation. The reforms included special courts to speed up rape trials and provisions for the chemical castration of serial offenders.
Musk’s reaction fits a longer pattern of commentary on such cases. In January 2025, he launched a sustained social media campaign accusing UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer of being complicit in the cover-up of Pakistani-origin grooming gangs in Britain. He demanded “Prison for Starmer!” across dozens of posts. In August 2025, Musk reposted an old 2017 Pakistani revenge-rape case as evidence about Sharia law, drawing condemnation for spreading misinformation.
His earlier posts also strained relations with Pakistan directly. Pakistani senators demanded an apology and threatened to deny Starlink license approval unless he stopped what they called anti-Pakistan propaganda. Some British Pakistanis publicly described Musk as dangerous for stoking racism through these posts. His latest remark, by contrast, praised Pakistan’s judiciary directly, marking a notable shift in tone.
