October 15, 2021
The anti-terrorism court
The anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi ruled he had "absconded", a court
official told reporters outside, saying it had also ordered the confiscation of
his property.In 2010, the UN report accused Musharraf semi rigid
hoses government of failing to give Bhutto adequate protection and said
her death could have been prevented..They were each been sentenced to 17 years
imprisonment and fined 500,000 rupees , according to a court order.The police
officers -- Saud Aziz, who was chief of Rawalpindi police at the time, and
senior officer Khurram Shahzad -- are now the only two people to have been
convicted over Bhutto's assassination.
They were set to walk free nearly 10 years
after they were first arrested, though a defence lawyer said it was not yet
clear when they would be released.Islamabad: A Pakistan court Thursday branded
former military ruler Pervez Musharraf a fugitive in ex-prime minister Benazir
Bhutto's murder trial, but acquitted five men accused of being involved in the
2007 assassination.He was charged with murder, criminal conspiracy for murder,
and facilitation for murder in 2013, in an unprecedented move against an ex-army
chief, challenging beliefs the military is immune from prosecution.
He was
killed in a US drone attack in 2009. He has denied the allegation.But he has
been in self-imposed exile in Dubai ever since a travel ban was lifted three
years later.Shahzad was accused of hosing down the crime scene less than two
hours after the assassination took place -- an act the United Nations described
in a report into the assassination as "fundamentally inconsistent with Pakistani
police practice".
However the judges found two police officers guilty of
"mishandling the crime scene", the court official said.Aziz was accused of both
giving Shahzad permission to hose down the scene, and of refusing to allow an
autopsy of Bhutto's body to go ahead.The verdicts are the first to be # issued
since Bhutto, the first female prime minister of a Muslim country, was killed in
a gun and suicide bomb attack nearly a decade ago, sparking street violence and
plunging Pakistan into months of political turmoil.
Musharraf's government blamed
the assassination on Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, who denied any
involvement.Former president and military ruler Musharraf is alleged to have
been part of a broad conspiracy to have his political rival killed before
elections.The court acquitted five men who had been accused of being Taliban
militants involved in the conspiracy to kill Bhutto.
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