ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has appealed the acquittal of three men over a deadly suicide car bombing near the Danish embassy in Islamabad two years ago, prosecutors said Wednesday. The appeal was filed in a high court in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, which runs into Islamabad, said senior prosecutor Mohammad Tayyab. A trial court in Rawalpindi last month acquitted the trio, ruling that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges against them. Six people were killed, including a Dane, when a car bomb exploded outside the embassy in June 2008 amid anger in the Muslim world over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed first printed in Danish newspapers in 2005. About 27 people were wounded. The bomb damaged the mission, the residences of the Indian and Dutch ambassadors, and almost destroyed a nearby UN agency. No one has been sentenced to death over any militant bombing in Pakistan and suspects in high-profile terror plots are frequently acquitted by the courts, which cite lack of evidence. “The hearing is likely to be held in Lahore when the dates will be fixed by the honourable court,” Tayyab said. The appeal was submitted on Tuesday. “We believe that the evidence produced in the court was sufficient for conviction,” Tayyab said. The prosecution had produced 32 witnesses in court, two of whom testified that they saw suspects Qari Ilyas and Shamsul Haq signalling the suicide attacker towards the target as they sat in a car, he said. – Agence France
