ISLAMABAD, 13 April 2006 — The Supreme Court yesterday agreed to hear appeals from four air force personnel and one civilian against their convictions in a 2003 plot to kill President Pervez Musharraf, a defense lawyer said.
A military court last year sentenced to death civilian Mushtaq Ahmed and four low-ranking air force personnel — Khalid Mehmood, Corporal Technician Nawazish Ali, Junior Technicians, Adnan Rasheed and Niaz Muhammad — for plotting to blow up President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s motorcade near Islamabad on Dec. 14, 2003. Musharraf and his guards narrowly escaped the attack.
The latest ruling came weeks after another court in Islamabad rejected a similar appeal from the men against their conviction and death sentence, said defense lawyer Mohammed Akram. However, Akram said no dates had been set for the appeal hearings.
The men were among nearly a dozen military personnel and civilians who were arrested after Al-Qaeda-linked militants tried to kill Musharraf by detonating a bomb on a bridge in Rawalpindi, a garrison city near Islamabad.
Eleven days after the Dec. 14 attack, at least 16 people — mostly the president’s police guards — were killed when suicide bombers tried to ram two explosives-laden vehicles into his limousine on Dec. 25.
Since then, military courts have convicted several suspects, including soldiers, in the attack. One soldier was hanged last year at a prison in the eastern Punjab province.
