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| India-Pakistan |
| Court acquits two in killing of 11 French |
| 2009-05-06 |
| An Anti-Terrorism Appellate (ATA) bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday acquitted two of the accused in the 2002 suicide car bombing outside Karachi's Sheraton Hotel, which had killed 11 French engineers. The bench -- consisting of Justice Qaiser Iqbal and Justice Mehmood Alam Rizvi -- had reserved its judgement after hearing detailed arguments by the defence and prosecution lawyers. The two appellants, Asif Zaheer alias Asadullah alias Shuja alias Abid and Rizwan Ahmed alias Bashir, challenged their conviction and sentence awarded to them by ATC-II, Karachi on June 30, 2003. The prosecution examined 41 witnesses before the trial court, including a witness who had seen the alleged suicide bomber, Rashid, with the convicts. The ATC-II had awarded death sentences to the accused for the murders of 11 French engineers and two Pakistanis, besides awarding them life terms for causing injuries to 10 French engineers and 12 Pakistanis and 14 years imprisonment for possessing and detonating explosives. The two convicts pleaded their innocence and claimed that they had been convicted due to misinterpretation of evidence. The counsel for the appellants submitted that the prosecution had failed to produce any concrete evidence of the appellants' connection with the suicide bomber. Allowing the appeal, the bench set aside the conviction and sentence awarded to the accused by the trial court and ordered their release unless they were required in any other case. |
| Posted by:Fred |