Umar Hayat was indicted by a court in Pakistan on Saturday for the killing of a teenage TikTok influencer who refused his offers of “friendship,” according to international media reports.
The TikTok influencer, 17-year-old Sana Yousaf, was shot dead outside her home earlier this year in front of her mother.
She was hit by two bullets in the chest and declared dead shortly after arriving at a nearby hospital. Two witnesses described the shooter as having a “smart appearance, moderate physique and height” and said he wore a black shirt and trousers.
Hayat, 22, pled not guilty in the Islamabad court in front of Judge Mohammad Afzal Majoka. When asked by the judge if he killed Yousaf, he denied committing the murder and rejected the allegations that he stole her phone, an anonymous court official told the Associated Press.
Hayat was arrested in June in the city of Faisalabad.
About Sana Yousaf
Islamabad police chief Syed Ali Nasir Rizvi told Al Arabiya at the time that the teenager had been murdered by a 22-year-old after she rejected his repeated advances.
“It was a case of repeated rejections. The boy was trying to reach out to her time and again,” Rizvi reportedly stated. “It was a gruesome and cold-blooded murder."
Yousaf, who was celebrating her birthday at the time of her death, was the daughter of a prominent women’s rights activist and had made content encouraging female education.