Pakistan frees spy on murder charge
Raymond Davis leaves jail with US consulate officials after ‘blood money ‘paid to victims’ families Raymond Davis, the CIA spy charged with murder in Pakistan , has been freed after the families of two dead men agreed to drop charges in exchange for financial compensation. The law minister of Punjab province, Rana Sanaullah, made the announcement hours after Davis appeared at a makeshift court in the jail where he was being held. Davis was freed under the Islamic “blood money” provision of Pakistani law, whereby an accused murderer can be freed on payment of financial compensation to the family of the victim. Television stations reported that the American spy had left the jail with US consulate officials and was being flown on a special flight to London. The sudden release of the 36-year-old former Green Beret is the dramatic conclusion of a case that has become a national obsession in Pakistan since Davis opened fire on two men in Lahore on 27 January, killing both of them. Davis claimed he was acting in self-defence against robbers but Pakistani prosecutors said the evidence suggested he intended to kill the two men, and charged him with murder. Some Pakistani officials said the two men were linked to Pakistan’s ISI spy agency, which quickly became embroiled in a barely concealed row with the CIA. The case has become a major block to already fragile relations between Pakistan and the US, with officials from President Barack Obama down insisting that Davis was a bona fide diplomat who deserved diplomatic immunity. Pakistani officials were reluctant to declare his status but the former foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, insisted that the CIA employee did not qualify. A lawyer for one of the families told a local television station that the families had been taken to the jail and forced to sign the pardon papers. Sanaullah claimed his government played no part in Davis’s release. But Najam Sethi, a respected analyst, said on Twitter that chief minister Shahbaz Sharif had played a “key secret role”. Pakistan United States CIA Declan Walsh guardian.co.uk
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on March 16, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News.
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Pakistan frees spy on murder charge
Raymond Davis leaves jail with US consulate officials after ‘blood money ‘paid to victims’ families Raymond Davis, the CIA spy charged with murder in Pakistan , has been freed after the families of two dead men agreed to drop charges in exchange for financial compensation. The law minister of Punjab province, Rana Sanaullah, made the announcement hours after Davis appeared at a makeshift court in the jail where he was being held. Davis was freed under the Islamic “blood money” provision of Pakistani law, whereby an accused murderer can be freed on payment of financial compensation to the family of the victim. Television stations reported that the American spy had left the jail with US consulate officials and was being flown on a special flight to London. The sudden release of the 36-year-old former Green Beret is the dramatic conclusion of a case that has become a national obsession in Pakistan since Davis opened fire on two men in Lahore on 27 January, killing both of them. Davis claimed he was acting in self-defence against robbers but Pakistani prosecutors said the evidence suggested he intended to kill the two men, and charged him with murder. Some Pakistani officials said the two men were linked to Pakistan’s ISI spy agency, which quickly became embroiled in a barely concealed row with the CIA. The case has become a major block to already fragile relations between Pakistan and the US, with officials from President Barack Obama down insisting that Davis was a bona fide diplomat who deserved diplomatic immunity. Pakistani officials were reluctant to declare his status but the former foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, insisted that the CIA employee did not qualify. A lawyer for one of the families told a local television station that the families had been taken to the jail and forced to sign the pardon papers. Sanaullah claimed his government played no part in Davis’s release. But Najam Sethi, a respected analyst, said on Twitter that chief minister Shahbaz Sharif had played a “key secret role”. Pakistan United States CIA Declan Walsh guardian.co.uk
Posted by
on March 16, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News.
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