A Pakistani man murdered his social media star sister in an ‘honor killing.’ Their parents pardoned him.

“The appeal court has acquitted the accused in the case on the grounds of a family settlement and lack of evidence,” Sardar Mehboob, Azeem’s attorney told The Washington Post on Tuesday.

“There is nothing left in the case. The convict will be released soon from the prison,” his attorney added, noting that the court order had yet to be made public.

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Azeem was arrested in 2016 after he confessed to killing his 26-year-old sister for posting what he called “shameful” pictures on social media.

“I was determined either to kill myself or kill her,” he said at the time. “I have no regrets.”

Under Islamic law in Pakistan, sometimes called sharia law, a murder victim’s family is able to pardon a convicted killer. The siblings’ parents lobbied for his release and the mother, Anwar Bibi, welcomed the court’s decision, according to the Associated Press.

“I am happy over the acquittal of my son, but we are still sad for our daughter’s loss,” she said. “I am thankful to the court, which ordered the release of my son at our request.”

Baloch, whose real name was Fauzia Azeem and who was 26 when she was killed, first caught the public’s attention in an audition for “Pakistan Idol,” a singing competition spun off from the “American Idol” TV show. She didn’t win or even make it past the first audition, but her reaction to her rejection led to a viral video on Facebook.

She leveraged her brief moment of social media fame to attract thousands of fans to her Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts, where she regularly posted pictures and videos of herself, some deemed provocative in Pakistan, which led to abuse.

“I am an inspiration to those ladies who are treated badly by society,” she once said, acknowledging the storm of vitriol her posts created in some conservative quarters. “I will keep on achieving, and I know you will keep on hating.”

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Baloch’s murder at the time drew nationwide condemnation. Her bother Azeem admitted to covertly slipping her a sedative then strangling her, he said, in their family home near the city of Multan in the Punjab province of the country, which neighbors India and Afghanistan. Azeem said his motivation was the taunting and embarrassment his sister brought upon their family.

After her death, Pakistan’s parliament passed an anti-honor killing law, which outlined harsher punishments and partially closed loopholes for some familial pardons, according to Human Rights Watch. But tougher penalties have not automatically translated into greater justice for women in the patriarchal country, the advocacy group says.

Azeem’s impending release has triggered uproar among human rights activists and on social media in the country.

“This is not the first time sentences for heinous crimes have been reduced or overturned. Why do these loopholes still exist in our judicial system whereby murderers can eventually walk free?” wrote actor Osman Khalid Butt on Twitter.

“This man who confessed of killing Qandeel, his own sister, is a free man today in the same country where Qandeel couldn’t live her life freely & was honor killed for the choices she made as a free citizen of this country,” wrote Pakistani lawyer Nighat Dad.

About 1,000 honor killings occur each year in Pakistan, according to the global Honor Based Violence Awareness Network, a resource center, which says the figure is likely an underestimate. The women are usually murdered by close relatives for violating conservative norms on love and marriage.

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