America
Pakistan court orders murder case against CIA ex-officials
Islamabad, April 7
A Pakistani court ordered
police on Tuesday to register a criminal case against two former CIA
officials for the offences of murder, conspiracy, waging war against
Pakistan and terrorism.
Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of the
Islamabad High Court issued the order to Islamabad police chief Tahir
Alam Khan on a petition filed by a resident of North Waziristan tribal
region who lost his son and a brother in a drone attack carried out by
the CIA in 2009, Xinhua news agency reported.
On December 31,
2009, Kareem Khan lost his teenaged son Zahinullah and brother Asif
Iqbal, who was a primary school teacher in Mirali, North Waziristan
Agency, in a drone strike carried out by the CIA, his defence lawyer
Mirza Shahzad Akbar said.
The police chief explained that the
government was reluctant to register the case against the former CIA
station chief in Islamabad Jonathan Banks and CIA legal counsel John A.
Rizzo because such an act could possibly jeopardise relations between
Pakistan and the US.
After conducting hearing in chambers,
Justice Siddiqui rejected the police chief's pleas and dictated an order
directing him to register a criminal case against the CIA officials
according to the application of the petitioner and submit a copy of the
case to the Islamabad High Court to prove compliance.
Kareem Khan
said he started his legal struggle in 2010 and has been pursuing the
case ever since. For around five years, the Islamabad police were
avoiding proceeding against the CIA officials involved in these killings
and hundreds of other killings in the US drone strikes in Pakistan.
Kareem
Khan earlier filed cases before the Justice of Peace in Islamabad and
Islamabad High Court but so far the Islamabad police had been reluctant
to proceed against the CIA officials.
"Today's order is a victory
for all those innocent civilians who have been killed in US-led drone
strikes in Pakistan and as a citizen of Pakistan, I feel somewhat
reaffirmed that perhaps people like me from Waziristan might also be
able to get justice for the wrongs being done to them," Kareem Khan said
after the court issued the order.