'Kasab testimony invalid in Pakistan'
Rezaul H. Laskar and M. Zulqernain
Islamabad/Lahore, March 9: In a significant ruling that could affect the trial of seven suspects charged with involvement in the Mumbai attacks in Pakistan, a bench of the Lahore high court on Tuesday ruled that the confessional statement of Ajmal Amir Kasab could not be used against the accused. Kasab is the lone surviving gunman in the Mumbai terror attack and is being tried in a special court in the financial capital of India. The Rawalpindi-based bench of the Lahore high court gave its order in response to a petition filed by LeT commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and other accused who are being tried by an anti-terrorism court for planning and help execute the 2008 attacks in Mumbai.
However, the high court bench dismissed the plea by Lakhvi and the other accused for their acquittal. Lashkar-e-Tayyaba is accused of carrying out the attack on November 26, 2008 that killed 166 people. The bench said they could not be acquitted at this stage while their trial was underway in the anti-terrorism court. The accused had filed the petition in the Lahore high court earlier in 2010 and a bench comprising Justices Sagheer Ahmed Qadri and Ijazul Ahsan reserved its verdict in the matter on January 26. The two judges were subsequently recalled to Lahore and the verdict was announced on Tuesday by a bench comprising Justices Asad Munir and Ijaz Ahmed. Shahbaz Rajput, a lawyer defending some of the accused, said the high court bench had ruled that the statement made by Kasab to the Indian authorities could not be used in a Pakistani court as it violated Article 43 of the Qanun-e-Shahadat Order of 1984 or evidence act.
“This article states that the statement of an accused can be used against the co-accused only if they are all appearing in the same court for the same case,” Mr Rajput said.
—PTI
