KARACHI, Oct 31: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday set aside the conviction of four activists of the banned Harkatul Mujahideen Al-Alami in the US consulate car bombing case and ordered their release if they are not required in other cases.

Mohammad Imran and Mohammad Haneef had been sentenced to death and co-accused Sharib Arsalan Farooqui and Hafiz Mohammad Zubair had been awarded life imprisonment by an anti-terrorism court of Karachi on April 14, 2003, for killing 12 people and injuring 43 others in a car bomb attack near the US consulate here on June 14, 2002.

The convicts had filed appeals in the high court against their conviction and sentences.

Their counsel, Abdul Waheed Katpar, argued that the prosecution case was doubtful because it had many contradictions. Eyewitness accounts, he maintained, were contradictory.

He argued that the investigation officer’s admission that the vehicle in which the blast had occurred had blown up at a long distance supported the defence contention that the blast had occurred in a Suzuki hi-roof and not in a Suzuki pick-up.

He said the so-called confessional statements of appellants were not voluntary because there were contradictions in their statements and they could not be relied upon.