LAHORE: A sessions court on Monday sentenced two brothers, Ahsan and Zeeshan Butt, to death twice for killing their sister and her husband over 'honour' six years ago.

Judge Naveed Iqbal also imposed a fine of Rs one million each on the convicted men.

The two brothers had shot dead their sister, Saba, and her husband, Shafiq, for marrying out of their own will six years ago.

The couple, who were residents of Yaki Gate area of Lahore's walled city, had married of their free will in 2009 and had moved away. But Ahsan and Zeeshan invited them over for a meal and shot dead the couple only a few months after their marriage.

Read: Murder, not honour

The sentence comes as Pakistan celebrates its second Oscar win, courtesy of filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy whose documentary based on the heinous crime won the prestigious award.

Earlier in 2012 Sharmeen had won an Academy Award for the film Saving Face, which highlighted the plight of acid attack survivors.

More than 500 men and women died in honour killings in 2015, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

‘Honour killing’ is defined as: “killing of a female, and sometimes her love-interests and other associates, for supposed sexual or marital offenses, typically by her own relatives, with the justification being that the ‘offence’ has brought dishonour to the family.”

Such crimes are perpetrated for a wide range of offences, marital infidelity, pre-marital sex, flirting, refusing to enter into an arranged marriage, being the victim of sexual assault, seeking a divorce even from an abusive husband or allegedly committing adultery, can all be perceived as impugning the family honour.