Page 10 - ARUBA TODAY

A10 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 18 december 2019
Pakistan sentences former dictator to death in treason case

By MUNIR AHMED allowed to present a de-
Associated Press fense.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — A Paki- In an infamous purge in
stani court on Tuesday 2007, Musharraf imposed
sentenced the country's a state of emergency and
former military ruler Gen. placed several key judges
Pervez Musharraf to death under house arrest in the
in a treason case related capital, Islamabad, and
to the state of emergency elsewhere in Pakistan. He
he imposed in 2007 while in came to power after oust-
power, officials said. ing former Prime Minister
It's the first time in Pakistan's Nawaz Sharif in a 1999
history that a former army bloodless coup.
chief and ruler of the coun- Later, when he was back in
try has been sentenced to office, Sharif first accused
death. Musharraf, who was Musharraf of treason in
sentenced in absentia, has 2013. The general was for-
been out of the country mally charged in 2014.
since 2016, when he was Musharraf was hospitalized
allowed to leave on bail again last week in Dubai
to seek medical treatment but the state of his health
abroad. or a specific reason for
He has been living in Dubai, In this April 20, 2013, file photo, Pakistan's former President and military ruler Pervez Musharraf this hospitalization has not
the United Arab Emirates, arrives at an anti-terrorism court in Islamabad, Pakistan. been announced. Earlier,
and is said to be very ill and Associated Press in a video message he re-
unlikely to travel home to said he would appeal the overdue. "For the first time Wednesday. leased two weeks ago,
face the sentence. Paki- sentence. in the history of Pakistan ... Pakistan's military de- Musharraf said he was
stan and the UAE have no "Musharraf today sent me a military dictator has been nounced the death sen- ready to record his state-
extradition treaty and Emir- a message, saying he is punished by a court of law," tence, saying it was "re- ment about the treason
ati authorities are unlikely to ready to come to Pakistan he said. ceived with lot of pain and case for the court but that
arrest Musharraf. If he were but his doctors are not al- After the sentence was anguish" by the military. The he was unable to travel to
to return, however, Mush- lowing him to travel," the announced, Pakistan's In- statement said in English Pakistan.
arraf would have the right lawyer told The Associated formation Minister Firdous that Musharraf, "who has In the video, looking visibly
to challenge his conviction Press following the ruling. Ashiq Awan told reporters served the country for over unwell, Musharraf claimed
and sentence in court. He added that Musharraf that Prime Minister Imran 40 years, fought wars for the treason charges were
The ruling Tuesday by a offered to give a statement Khan's government would the defense of the country baseless and said he served
three-judge panel was not to the court through a vid- "review in detail" the verdict can surely never be a trai- his country for 10 years.
unanimous and one of the eo link but the request was before commenting on it. tor." "I have fought for my coun-
judges had opposed the denied. Khan, who enjoys good ties The military said "due le- try," he says in the video.
death sentence, accord- A senior Supreme Court with the country's powerful gal process seems to have "This is a case in which I
ing to Akhtar Shah, one of lawyer, Hamid Ali Khan, military, is expected to re- been ignored," highlight- have not been heard and
Musharraf's lawyers. Shah hailed the verdict as long turn home from Geneva on ing that Musharraf was not I have been victimized." q
Airstrikes, shelling kill 16 in Syria’s rebel-held areas

Associated Press village of Maasaran, both some of its members re-
BEIRUT (AP) — Airstrikes in Idlib province. That’s ac- moving the bodies from
and artillery shelling killed cording to an Idlib-based inside the apartment and
at least 16 civilians — in- activist, Hadi Abdullah, as placing them in an am-
cluding six members of the well as the Britain-based bulance as a man and a
same family — amid in- Syrian Observatory for Hu- young boy sat weeping.
tensified violence in rebel- man Rights. The Observatory said six
held areas of northwestern The shelling in Bdama killed other civilians were killed
Syria, opposition activists the wife and three daugh- in an airstrike on the vil-
said Tuesday. ters of a relief worker with lage of Talmanas. The Step
The bombardments hit the opposition paramedic news agency, an activ-
three villages in Idlib prov- group Syrian Civil Defense, ist collective, said eight
ince, Syria’s last major reb- also known as the White people were killed in the
el stronghold. Helmets. village. Different casualty
Increased strikes target- This photo released by the opposition Syrian Civil Defense res- Anwar Hamidi learned of figures are common in the
ing Idlib province in re- cue group, shows Civil Defense workers searching in a house their deaths after arriving immediate aftermath of
cent weeks seem to indi- where six members of the same family were killed in shelling with a relief team to his attacks.
cate that Syrian President of the village of Bdama, in Idlib province, Syria, Tuesday, Dec. home, the sit of the bom- In August, after weeks of
Bashar Assad’s forces are 17, 2019. bardment, according to intense fighting, Syrian
preparing for a ground of- Associated Press the White Helmets’ state- troops captured the town
fensive. Syria’s largest. Before the tants. ment. Hamidi’s sister-in-law of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib
The objective appears to war began in 2011, Alep- The six family members and the wife of his cousin province.
be reopening the main po was the country’s com- killed Tuesday were hit by were also killed in the shell- Just north of Khan Sheik-
highway linking the capi- mercial center. shelling in the village of ing, the group said. houn is another major town
tal, Damascus, with the Idlib province is dominat- Bdama, while four civilians A video released by the that’s still in rebel hands,
northern city of Aleppo, ed by al-Qaida linked mili- died in an airstrike in the paramedic group showed Maaret al-Numan.q