The defendants appealed their conviction for the crime of "zina," or wilful intercourse between a man and a woman who are not validly married to one another. The lower court had held that the female defendant was already married when she married the male defendant and, thus, their marriage to each other was not valid. The Federal Shariat Court of Pakistan rejected this argument and ruled that the female defendant's previous marriage was automatically dissolved when she converted to Islam, and, thus, her second marriage to the male defendant was valid.
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