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5 Pakistan Navy officers get death sentence over terror charges
At least five navy officers were given death sentence by a Pakistani Navy court for planning to hijack a warship and attack one of the US Navy’s refuel ships in 2014.
At least five navy officers were given death sentences by a Pakistani Navy court for planning to hijack a warship and attack one of the US Navy’s refuel ships in 2014.
Sub-Lieutenant Hammad Ahmed and four other officials were convicted of the naval dockyard attack that took place on September 6, 2014, Pakistani news outlet Dawn online quoted retired Major Saeed Ahmed, father of Ahmed, as saying.
They were charged with having links with the Islamic State (IS) group, mutiny, hatching a conspiracy and carrying weapons to the Karachi dockyard, Saeed said.
Read: Court refuses bail to 14 suspected IS operatives
Saeed claimed that the naval authorities did not provide his son the right to a fair trial.
“I wrote a letter to the Judge Advocate General (JAG) of the navy on August 15, 2015, asking him to provide the opportunity of a defence counsel to my son,” Saeed said.
“The navy JAG on September 21 replied that the option of defence counsel would be available at the time of trial.”
Saeed was waiting for the commencement of the trial but was recently informed that his son was shifted to the Karachi Central Prison.
He came to know about the capital punishment when he met his son and the other four officials -- Irfanullah, Muhammad Hammad, Arsalan Nazeer and Hashim Naseer -- in the prison.
There was no official word by the Pakistan Navy, he said.
“My son told me that a naval court had awarded death penalty to them after a secret trial,” Saeed claimed.
He claimed that the five were made scapegoats as this was not the first time when such security lapses came to light.
