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India-Pakistan

SHC acquits ‘rocket launcher’

2006-04-14

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court acquitted on Thursday appellant Sabir Ali Waseem from charges of firing a rocket at Government Commerce College in the limits of Artillery Maidan police station back in 2001. Sabir Ali was awarded an aggregate of 30 years of imprisonment by an anti-terrorism court in April 2003. According to the prosecution, the appellant had confessed that he wanted to hit the Sheraton hotel in the vicinity, but missed the target and hit Government Commerce College instead. He was awarded 10 years imprisonment each on three counts which the court had ordered to be run concurrently. Sabir challenged his conviction and sentence in the Sindh High Court. The anti-terrorism appellate bench of the SHC comprising Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaferi and Justice Ali Sain Dino Metlo after hearing the arguments of the counsel for the appellant and state acquitted the appellant from charges through a short order the reason for which would be recorded later. I'm sure the learned judges can think of some reason for letting him go.

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India-Pakistan

SHC acquits Akram Lahori, three others

2006-04-01

The Sindh High Court on Friday allowed the appeals of four Lashkar-e-Jhangvi activists and set aside their convictions on murder recorded by an anti-terrorism court. The court ordered their immediate release if the men were not required in any other case. Mohammad Ajmal alias Akram Lahori, Mohammad Azam, Malik Tassaduq Hussain and Attaullah were found guilty by the trial court of killing six men and injuring five others while they were praying at Imambargah Ali Murtaza in Mehmoodabad on October 4, 2001. Akram Lahori is head of one of the branches of LJ. It's not against the law to be the head of a banned terrorist organization in Pakland. In fact, I believe it's considered a prestige thing. Attaullah and Azam were sentenced to death while Akram Lahori and Tassaduq Hussain were given life imprisonment. The anti-terrorism appellate bench of the SHC, consisting of Justice Mohammad Afzal Soomro and Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaferi, had reserved judgment on their appeals for January 27. The SHC bench, consisting of Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaferi and Ali Sain Dino Metlo, allowed the appeals and acquitted the appellants of murder charges. The bench said the prosecution had been unable to prove the appellants guilty. "Dey got nuttin' on us! Da witnesses are all dead, yer honor!" "Case dismissed!"

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India-Pakistan

Sindh High Court maintains death sentence of LJ activists

2006-02-23

The anti-terrorism appellate (ATA) bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) upheld on Wednesday the death sentence of two activists of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) and enhanced to death the life term of a third for killing a director of laboratories of the ministry of defence in 2001. Maybe an appeal wasn't a good move? Mohammad Shahid Hanif was awarded a life term while Talah Hussain and Khalil Ahmed were handed down the death sentence by Judge Arshad Noor Khan of the Anti-Terrorism Court-III on April 15, 2002. The appellants, who were, according to the prosecution, riding a bike, had shot dead Syed Zafar Hussain, the director laboratories of the ministry of defence, while he was on his way to work from his house in the limits of Gulberg police station on July 30, 2001. That'll put a stop to that cycle of violence... Safdar Hussain Shah, the director's driver, had identified the accused during the identification parade as well as during the trial. The trial court, on the evidence of Safdar Hussain Shah, who was also an eyewitness to the crime, had convicted all of the accused, but awarded Mohammad Shahid Hanif lesser punishment. The trial court had held that since Mohammad Shahid was driving the bike, he could not have participated in the firing on the car. If the bike hadn't been driven, then they would have had to fire on the car from the sidewalk. However, the SHC's ATA bench comprising Justice Mohammad Afzal Soomro and Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaferi, rejected this reasoning of the trial judge for awarding a lesser punishment to Mohammad Shahid and enhanced his life term to death while holding that his intention was common to that of the two convicts who were awarded the death sentence. The ATA bench dismissed the appeals of Talah Hussain and Khalil Ahmed and modified the sentence of Mohammad Shahid through a short order, the reason for which was to be recorded later on.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Court resumes Akmal Waheed brothers trial

2004-12-12

Judge Anti Terrorism Court-II Feroz Mehmood Bhatti on Saturday resumed the hearing of case against Dr Akmal Waheed and his younger brother Dr Arshad Waheed on charges of harboring activists of an Al Qaeda linked organization Jundullah. The court ruled out the objection of defence counsel M Ilyas Khan that trial could not go ahead as long as the doctor brothers were continued to be detained under section 11-EEE of the Anti Terrorism Act (ATA).The court, after ruling out the objection of the defence, recorded the statement of prosecution witness Mati-ur-Rehman, the owner of a rent-a-car company, Orient. The witness in his examination-in-chief stated that he had on May 26, 2004 rented out the car to Shahzad Bajwa and Israr Ahmed (both the police claimed activists of Jundulla) on personal guarantee of Mohammad Afzal Farooqi, reporter of a local daily. The witness deposed that they did not return the car and later he knew that it was found parked in the house of the two doctor brothers. However, during cross-examination by the defence, the witness admitted that in his statement before the police he had stated that he did not remember the date of delivery of the car and further that he did not produce any documents when he was examined by the police. Both Dr Akmal Waheed and Dr Arshad Waheed were first shown arrested by the police on June 17, on charges of coordinating attacks on rangers patrolling van in April and terrorist attack on former corps commander of Karachi Ahmed Saleem Hayat on June 10. The police dropped these charges against them and they were on July 2 shown arrested in a fresh FIR registered at Gulsha-e-Iqbal police station. The police accused them of harboring activists of Jundullah, providing them medical assistance and facilitating their training in Wana, South Wazirstan. The two brothers moved bail applications before the trial court which was rejected in November. Later they moved the bail please in the Sindh High Court and a division bench comprising Justice Wahid Bux Brohi and Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaferi ordered them to be released on bail on furnishing surety of Rs0.5 million each.

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