Pervez Musharraf: Former Pakistan President sentenced to death for high treason

DUBAI, UAE - MARCH 24: Former Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf salutes as he arrives to brief media and supporters during a press conference ahead of his return, at the Dubai APML party headquarters on March 24, 2013 in Dubai United Arab Emirates. The former Pakistani president and military ruler is returning to Pakistan after 4 years of self-imposed exile to participate in historic elections in May. Mr Musharraf has been granted protective bail in several cases, including conspiracy to murder which has paved his way allowing for his return. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)

PHOTO: Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images Europe/Getty Images

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(CNN) —

Former Pakistan President and military ruler Pervez Musharraf has been sentenced to death in absentia for high treason following a six-year legal case.

A three-member special court in Islamabad on Tuesday convicted Musharraf of violating the constitution by unlawfully declaring emergency rule while he was in power, in a case that had been pending since 2013.

The 76-year-old former leader, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates for more than three years, has the option to appeal the verdict.

Musharraf seized power in a military coup in 1999 and ruled Pakistan as President until 2008.

He was indicted in 2014 on a total of five charges, including three counts of subverting, suspending and changing the country’s constitution, firing Pakistan’s chief justice, and imposing emergency rule.

It’s the first time in Pakistan’s history that an army chief has been tried and found guilty of treason. Under Pakistan’s constitution, high treason is a crime that carries the death penalty or life imprisonment.

The special court ruled on the death sentence by a two to one majority, with one of the three judges not backing the death sentence but agreeing on a conviction.

Musharraf has been living in Dubai since 2016 after Pakistan’s Supreme Court lifted a travel ban allowing him to leave the country to seek medical treatment. From his hospital bed in Dubai earlier this month, the former leader said in a video statement that he was innocent and the treason case was “baseless.”