Pakistan

April 2004 | Risk Summary

Opposition leader Makhmood Javed Hasmhi has been sentenced to 23 years in prison by a closed court in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. Hasmhi, who heads the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD), was convicted on seven charges, including inciting hatred of the military. Opposition leaders have condemned the sentence, which they say shows the courts are on the side of President Pervez Musharraf. Hashmi was arrested last October after reading a letter, purportedly from the army, which criticised Musharraf's pro-American foreign policy.

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