Pakistan court acquits 6 leaders of Hafiz Saeed’s Jamaat-ud-Dawa in terror financing case
Pakistan’s Lahore High Court (LHC) acquitted six leaders of the Hafiz Saeed-led Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JUD), the flagship outfit of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Was. on Saturday. The members had previously been sentenced on a count of terrorism financing.
Lashkar-e-Taiba had planned the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in which over 160 people were killed.
According to Dawn, the trial court had sentenced Professor Malik Zafar Iqbal, Yahya Mujahid, Nasrullah, Samiullah and Umar Bahadur to nine years imprisonment, while Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki was sentenced to six months in jail.
“The appellants challenged their conviction before a division bench of Chief Justice Muhammad Amir Bhatti and Justice Tariq Salim Shaikh. Their counsel argued that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges against the appellants beyond a reasonable doubt. He said that The trial court did not appreciate the evidence properly, which led to a serious miscarriage of justice,” Pakistani media reported.
He argued that the Al-Anfal Trust, of which the appellants were members, had no links with the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
The counsel argued that there is no evidence that the appellants were indulging in any activity which supported the objectives of Lashkar or any other such organisation. According to the Dawn report, he said that it was only in the mid-2000s that the appellants separated him from the trust.
An additional prosecutor general opposed the appeal and argued that the trust was acting as a proxy for LeT, which led the government to ban it in 2019. He said that the appellants were trustees/officers and staunch workers of the trust.
Allowing the appeals, the division bench observed that the statement of the main prosecution witness is not credible as there is no evidence, as Dawn reported.
“In his cross-examination, Inspector Muhammad Khalid (prosecution witness) admitted that the local police station never received any complaint against the appellants and even during their investigation none of the general public took their cognizance of I didn’t bring anything that could expose their misdeeds.” The bench noted.
The bench observed that it is a common practice that the prosecution should prove its case beyond reasonable doubt in order to secure the sentence of an accused.
“The appellants cannot be held guilty merely by reason that the LeT or the Trust has been banned,” the Dawn report said.
The bench ruled that the prosecution should independently establish the ingredients of the offenses under Sections 11-F and 11-J(2) of the ATA, which it has failed to do.
Meanwhile, JuD chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and several other leaders have been convicted in dozens of FIRs lodged by the Anti-Terrorism Department (CTD) on terrorism financing charges. According to Dawn’s report, the CTD had registered 41 FIRs against Jamaat-ud-Dawa leaders in different cities.
(with inputs from ANI)
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