ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A brother of a Pakistani internet sensation was sentenced on Friday to life in prison for her murder, after a three-year trial in a case that returned the spotlight to a rampant practice of “honor killings.”

The authorities said the brother, Waseem Ahmed Azeem, confessed in 2016 that he had killed his sister Fauzia Azeem, who achieved fame in conservative Pakistan by posting provocative views and images, including seminude pictures, on Facebook and Twitter under the name Qandeel Baloch.



In a case like this in Pakistan, however, a confession is by no means a guarantee of a conviction.

While many of Ms. Baloch’s admirers considered her a feminist hero, Mr. Azeem believed that his sister had sullied the family’s honor by posting what he called “shameful pictures.” He drugged and strangled her as she slept in her parents’ home in Muzaffarabad, a town on the outskirts of Multan in Punjab Province, on July 15, 2016, and was arrested within days.

The parents took his side, submitting a written statement during the trial proceedings saying that they had absolved him and asking the court to do the same. The assailants in many such “honor killings” in Pakistan are permitted to go free because the victim’s family forgives the killer.