Pak court acquits Zardari in graft case

RAWALPINDI:A Pakistani court on Saturday acquitted former president Asif Ali Zardari in a major corruption case that dogged him for almost two decades, his lawyer said.

Zardari, who left office in 2013, faced corruption allegations involving Swiss banks dating back to the 1990s.

He was accused along with his late wife, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, of laundering $12 million of illegal kickbacks.

“An accountability court today acquitted Asif Zardari in a case filed against him in 1998 accusing him of making and maintaining assets beyond his known sources of income,” lawyer Farooq H Naik said.

He said the court, which has held hearings in Lahore and Rawalpindi since 1998, recorded statements from more than 40 witnesses.

“It has now become abundantly clear that the allegations against my client were fake and there were no solid grouds for filing a baseless case against him 19 years ago,” Naik said. BENGALURU :Special Counsel and former FBI director Robert Mueller is examining what role, if any former national security adviser Mike Flynn may have had in an effort to obtain Hillary Clinton’s emails from Russian hackers, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

Efforts to seek out the hackers who stole emails of former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was led by Republican activist Peter Smith, the Journal said.

Mueller was appointed special counsel to determine whether there was collusion between President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Moscow.

Flynn resigned in February after revelations that he had discussed U.S. sanctions on Russia with the Russian ambassador to the United States before Trump took office and misled Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations.

Representatives from the White House and Mueller’s office could not immediately be reached for comment.