KARACHI, Feb 17: The Sindh High Court accepted on Monday the appeals of two convicts against the death sentences awarded to them by an anti-terrorism court for the murder of four American officials of Union Texas and their Pakistani driver in November 1997.
The conviction and seven-year jail terms of the convicts, Ahmad Saeed alias Saeed Bharam and Mohammad Saleem alias Saleem Ganja, handed down by the same court under the Arms Ordinance, were, however, upheld by the SHC appellate bench comprising Justice Ghulam Nabi Soomro and Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany. Advocate Azizullah Shaikh appeared for the appellants, and an assistant advocate-general contested the appeals.
The appellants, alleged to be workers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, were accused of intercepting a Union Texas car on the PIDC bridge on Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan Road, Karachi, on November 12, 1997, along with eight others declared absconders and killing its driver, Anwar Mirza, and four occupants, Egbu Ephrain, Ritchie Tracylane, Enlow Joel Brian and Jenning William Lary, all US nationals.
The FIR was registered at TPX police station on the complaint of a Pakistani official of the multinational the same day. The complainant said he learnt of a violent incident on the PIDC bridge as he came to his office at 8:05am on November 12, 1997. He rushed to the scene and found a bullet-riddled Union Texas car with five bodies lying in a pool of blood in it.
According to prosecution witness Habib Khan, a traffic police sub-inspector, he saw four persons armed with Kalashnikovs fleeing in a car with an Islamabad registration number from Sheraton Hotel to Beach Luxury Hotel. The car was later found abandoned in front of the Saddar post office on Abdullah Haroon Road by the Artillery Maidan police. It turned out to be a stolen vehicle.
The police could not make any arrest besides that of Ahmad Saeed and Mohammad Saleem, who made confessional statements but later retracted them, despite proclamations until they got hold of two vegetable vendors in North Nazimabad on June 13, 1999. According to the prosecution, Mohammad Mushtaq and Faqira told the police that they were driver and cleaner of a tanker that was right behind the Union Texas car when it was ambushed. They fled to Abbotabad, their hometown, after the incident as they did not want to be cited as witnesses. They identified Saeed and Saleem as occupants of the car from which shots were fired on the Union Texas vehicle. Two unmarked Kalashnikovs were also recovered following the production of the two witnesses.
The accused were convicted under sections 6 and 7 of the Anti-terrorism Act, sections 302, 148 and 149 of PPC and section 13-D of the Arms Ordinance. Both were given death sentence twice, a fine of Rs200,000 each or one year’s imprisonment in default, and seven years’ jail each for possessing illicit arms. They challenged the decision separately by filing appeals against the murder and illicit arms cases.
Arguing the appeals, Advocate Azizullah Shaikh submitted that there was no evidence to connect the accused with the offence. The two alleged eyewitnesses appeared on the scene 17 months after the incident. Unmarked rifles were produced much later as weapons of offence and there was an interval of several months between their recovery and the incident.
The retracted confessional statements of the appellants had no evidentiary value even otherwise as they were recorded long after their arrest in 1998 and 1999. Accused Saeed, according to hospital record, was undergoing surgical treatment for appendicitis at the time of occurrence.
Upholding the arguments, the appellate SHC bench accepted the appeals in the main case and ordered the acquittal of the accused if not held on any other charge. The conviction under the Arms Ordinance was upheld as the defence witness failed to cross-examine the prosecution witnesses at the trial.