Musharraf named a ‘fugitive’ in Bhutto murder

Family angered as Taliban suspects are cleared over 2007 assassination of Pakistan’s former PM

A COURT in Pakistan has named former military dictator General Pervez Musharraf a fugitive from justice in its long-awaited verdict in the trial for the murder of Benazir Bhutto, the country’s first female prime minister. The anti-terrorism court yesterday acquitted five suspected Taliban members of conspiring to murder Ms Bhutto in 2007, citing a lack of evidence. However, the court convicted two policemen of “mishandling the crime scene” and ordered the seizure of property owned by Musharraf, who fled the country in 2013.

Friends and relatives of Ms Bhutto said the verdict offered no resolution in their search for justice. “Those truly guilty of my mother’s murder roam free,” said Aseefa Bhutto Zardari, hinting at the involvement of the military in the assassination of Ms Bhutto, whose 2007 campaign for a third term as prime minister brought her into conflict with the regime of General Musharraf. In the aftermath of the gun-and-bomb attack, which killed 24 people, the Musharraf government claimed it had been orchestrated by Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud and carried out by juvenile militants.

Despite Mehsud having been killed by a US drone strike in 2009, the court named him, along with four Taliban leaders, as “absconders” from justice.

The release of the five accused, many of whom were teenagers at the time of their arrest, comes as little surprise in a country where anti-terrorism courts routinely fail to convict suspects.

Chief prosecutor Chaudhry Azhar told The Daily Telegraph that he had “ample evidence” against two of the men, including a confession – but his task was complicated by the failure to preserve the original crime scene.

Rawalpindi police, according to the verdict, deliberately wiped it clean.

Two officers, Saud Aziz and Khurram Shahzad, were sentenced to 17 years in prison and fined $5,000 for their role in having the site hosed down within two hours of the attack. By that time, investigators had collected just 26 pieces of evidence in a case that would normally rely on thousands.

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) said in a statement that the officers’ convictions failed to address “who had ordered them to wash out the place”.

Suspicions that the army were behind the murder of Ms Bhutto, who clashed with the military and the intelligence agencies during two terms in power, were raised after claims that Musharraf threatened her with “dire consequences” should she return to Pakistan. A UN report in 2010 found that the security offered to Ms Bhutto was “fatally insufficient” and that her death was preventable. Three years later, the chief prosecutor in the case – who had argued against bailing Musharraf – was shot dead by unknown assailants on his way to court.

Naheed Khan, a former aide of Ms Bhutto who was present in her car during the attack, said: “How can I believe in a trial in which I was never called to record a statement?” The PPP has said it will appeal against the verdict.