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WORLD NEWS Friday 1 September 2017

Pakistan verdict on Bhutto assassination angers supporters

By MUNIR AHMED Thursday ordered his prop- why the judge threw out
Associated Press erty seized after he failed to the confessions, but Imtiaz
ISLAMABAD (AP) — A Paki- appear in court. said the government may
stani court on Thursday sen- Bhutto became the first appeal. Imtiaz said the two
tenced two former police woman elected to lead former police officers, Saud
officers to 17 years in prison a Muslim-majority country Aziz and Khurram Shahzad,
for failing to protect former in 1988, when she first be- also had the right to ap-
Prime Minister Benazir Bhut- came prime minister. She peal. Aziz was Rawalpindi
to, but the same court ac- was the daughter of an- police chief at the time
quitted five suspected mili- other former prime minister, of Bhutto’s killing. Bhutto’s
tants who had confessed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was party, as well as the pros-
to taking part in her 2007 executed in 1977 after be- ecution, charged that Aziz
assassination. Farhatullah ing deposed in a coup. She ordered the crime scene
Babar, the spokesman for served as prime minister hosed down immediately
Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s again from 1993-1996. after the killing before in-
Party, expressed “disap- At the time of her assassina- vestigators could collect
pointment and shock” over tion in December 2007, she evidence. The prosecution
the verdict, saying “justice was a leading opposition also said the two police of-
has not been done.” figure running to replace ficers did not provide suf-
Bhutto, then a prominent Musharraf, who had seized In this Dec. 27, 2007 photo, former Pakistani Prime Minister ficient security to Bhutto
opposition leader, was power in a bloodless coup Benazir Bhutto waves to her supporters during her last public after she received death
killed by a suicide bomber eight years earlier. He was rally, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. A prosecutor says a Pakistani threats from militants.
court has sentenced two former police officers to 17 years in
who rushed her motorcade forced to resign in disgrace prison for failing to provide adequate security to assassinated Babar, the spokesman for
as she was campaigning to when her party returned to former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007. Bhutto’s party, said the
replace then-President Per- power in an election held (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash) acquittal of the suspected
vez Musharraf. Musharraf, shortly after her death, in border with Afghanistan. ing Bhutto. The judge ac- militants “seems a triumph
who has been accused of 2008. Bhutto had repeated- Musharraf’s government quitted the five suspects for of al-Qaida.” He said that
complicity in the assassina- ly spoken out against Islam- blamed Bhutto’s killing on lack of evidence although while the court convict-
tion, pleaded not guilty at ic militant groups, and prior Pakistani Taliban chief Bait- they had confessed during ed the two officers, it did
a 2013 court appearance to her assassination had ullah Mehsud, who was the investigation, Prosecu- not determine who had
and now lives in self-im- vowed to shut down mili- killed in a U.S. drone attack tor Khawaja Imtiaz said. It ordered them to destroy
posed exile. The judge on tant sanctuaries near the in 2009. Mehsud denied kill- was not immediately clear evidence.q

IS hands over Iranian’s remains in deal with Hezbollah

BASSEM MROUE and would conduct DNA said IS militants should be “He (Assad) told me, this some 300 fighters and as
Associated Press tests before sending his re- killed on the battlefield. is embarrassing for us, but many civilians, without tar-
BEIRUT (AP) — The Islamic mains onward to Iran. The Hezbollah leader Hassan no problem,” Nasrallah geting the evacuees them-
State group has handed handover was reported by Nasrallah said Thursday that told supporters gathered in selves.
over the body of a recently the Hezbollah-run Al-Manar he met personally with Syr- eastern Lebanon for a “vic- Rami Abdurrahman, who
captured Iranian Revolu- TV. ian President Bashar Assad tory rally” to celebrate the heads the Britain-based
tionary Guard member as As part of the evacuation in Syria to ask for his help in expulsion of IS from the bor- Syrian Observatory for Hu-
part of a deal that allowed deal, the militants revealed securing a deal that would der area. man Rights, said some am-
hundreds of extremists and the locations of the remains help clear the border area “The Syrian government bulances that were part of
their families to evacuate of Lebanese soldiers cap- and uncover the fate of has put up with the embar- the IS convoy were able
the Lebanon-Syria border tured in 2014 in exchange the Lebanese soldiers. rassment for the sake of to cross into IS-held territo-
region. for safe passage through “I went to President Assad Lebanon,” he said. ries in Syria. He added that
The Lebanese Hezbollah Syrian government-held ... I went to Damascus,” he The U.S.-led coalition has Hojaji’s body was released
group, which negotiated territory to an IS-held area in said, adding that he sought blasted the deal, and U.S. after the ambulances car-
the controversial deal, said Syria near the Iraqi border. to convince Assad to let airstrikes on Wednesday rying wounded IS fighters
Thursday it had received The deal angered Iraq and the convoy pass through blocked the convoy of made it to areas held by
the body of Mohsen Hojaji the U.S.-led coalition, which government territory. evacuees, which includes the extremists. q