But on Friday, when the court published its written judgment, it revealed that only two of the accused men, identified as Izharullah Rehman and Israrur Rehman, had been convicted and imprisoned, sentenced to life. The eight others had been freed.
“They were released for lack of evidence,” said Azad Khan, the regional deputy police chief, adding that the government would probably appeal the decision.
Mr. Khan emphasized that there was “no conspiracy or mystery” in the case and that the initial, mistaken reports of the convictions had stemmed from the secretive nature of the trial.
Still, news of the eight men’s release offered an illustration of the problems facing Pakistan’s judicial system, where incompetence, intimidation and expediency can conspire to frustrate justice in even the highest-profile cases.
I suspect they are letting some of the people who conspired to shoot Malala go because of politics. If so, I think it's despicable.
3 comments:
It may or may not be despicable, but it's certainly Pakistan. They've been taking American funds and using them to fund the Taliban in Afghanistan for many years. They funded and trained Lashkar e Taiba, the Islamist group that killed 164 people in Mumbai in 2008. For years they 'couldn't find' Osama bin Laden, and they still can't seem to get their mitts on Mullah Omar. Don't let the thin veneer of democracy fool you - Pakistan is just as hardcore a militarized Islamic theocracy as Saudi Arabia, and they are even more dangerous.
The other two? Only two things are possible - they had nothing to do with the shooting but they're people the government wanted to get out of circulation, so they took the fall, or they are certainly guilty in which case they'll be secretly released before very long. The assault on Malala represented mainstream Pakistani policy, and the people who did it are considered heroes. And Malala is considered an evil infidel tool of the west...
I'm with mikey on this one, as far as violent extremist cesspools go, Pakistan is second only to Saudi Arabia.
We sure know how to pick our allies.
They seem to believe that some militants and terrorists are useful so they let the structures that produce them in place--but they are ineffective at routing out those that endanger their own people. One might have thought the Peshawar attack would've led to more resolve on this particular issue.
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