ISLAMABAD, 13 April 2004 — Top Pakistani opposition leader Makhdoom Javed Hashmi was convicted yesterday of trying to incite an army rebellion against President Pervez Musharraf and sentenced to 23 years in prison, the public prosecutor told reporters here .

Hashmi, leader of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, was found guilty of sedition, mutiny and forgery by the district and session court in Rawalpindi, near the capital, said public prosecutor Munir Ahmed Bhatti.

“Javed Hashmi has been found guilty of all the charges,” Bhatti said, adding that he was also fined 42,000 rupees.

The trial was held in prison for security reasons, and journalists were barred from the proceedings.

Opposition senators, including from Hashmi’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML) party, staged a walkout to protest the court ruling.

“Javed Hashmi has been targeted today. Tomorrow, it is going to be someone else. This will never stop. This is murder of justice,” Sen. Ishaq Dar, from the Muslim League, said in the upper house of Parliament.

Hashmi, a member of the lower house of Parliament, was arrested Oct. 29, days after publicizing a letter purportedly written by an army officer who criticized Musharraf’s policies.

Hashmi had been one Musharraf’s most vocal critics since the military leader ousted former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless coup in 1999.

Hashmi had demanded that Musharraf be tried for treason for subverting the constitution when he staged the coup and seized power.

Siddiqul Farooq, spokesman for PML, termed the outcome “the darkest chapter in the judicial history of Pakistan.”

“The verdict has proved that the judiciary is in Musharraf’s clutches,” Farooq said, vowing an appeal against the sentence and the fine on Hashmi.

State attorney Bhatti argued last week that Hashmi was involved in a campaign to defame Pakistan’s Army, create hatred against the government and division in the armed forces.

“All the charges against Hashmi have been proved in the light of the statements of witnesses,” official media quoted him as telling the judge on Friday.

He said Hashmi at a press conference on Oct. 20, 2003, presented a letter pad with an army monogram, which was later proved to be a fake.

“There is enough evidence on the record to give sufficient proof against the applicant that he had attempted to incite the people for mutiny,” Bhatti said.