Pakistan's ex-president Pervez Musharraf was on Tuesday sentenced to death for high treason by a three-member bench of the special court of Pakistan.

Musharraf went into self-imposed exile in 2008 and returned to Pakistan in March 2013. A case was filed against him in 2013 and he faced charges for suspending, subverting and abrogating the Constitution, imposing an emergency in the country in November 2007 and detaining judges of Pakistan’s superior courts, according to a report. He was indicted on March 31, 2014, and the prosecution had tabled the entire evidence before the special court in September the same year. Citing security and health reasons, the former President had left for Dubai in March 2016 and has not returned to his home country since then.

He has then declared an absconder as he failed to appear in court despite repeated summons and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) was directed to arrest him by the court, according to a news agency. The 76-year-old former leader seized power in a military coup in 1999 and ruled Pakistan as President until 2008.