KENYAN POLICE ON TRIAL FOR ‘ASSASSINATION’ OF PAKISTANI JOURNALIST

Wed 01 October 2023:

An elite Kenyan police unit is on trial on a charge of wrongful death following the killing of a Pakistani journalist in Nairobi last year.

The case opened at the Kajiado High Court on the outskirts of Nairobi on Tuesday, with petitioners claiming that Arshad Sharif’s death was an “assassination” planned in Pakistan.

The critic of Pakistan’s powerful military leadership was killed in October 2022 when the car he was in with another Pakistani man drove through a checkpoint outside the Kenyan capital and police opened fire.

PAKISTAN JOURNALIST ARSHAD SHARIF KILLED IN KENYA WAS ‘TARGETED’, SAYS OFFICIAL

At the time, Nairobi police expressed regret over the shooting, saying it was a case of “mistaken identity” during a search for a similar car involved in a child abduction case.

But a team of Pakistani investigators later said Sharif’s killing was a “planned assassination”.

His widow, Javeria Siddique, filed the case against the Kenyan police unit, known as the General Service Unit or GSU, that was involved in the shooting.

OUTSPOKEN PAKISTANI JOURNALIST ARSHAD SHARIF KILLED IN KENYA

Kenyan police claim that Shariff did not stop at a roadblock on the outskirts of Nairobi, but his family and Pakistani investigators disagreed, saying Sharif’s killing was planned in Pakistan.

Siddique told The Associated Press: “I am suing the GSU because they committed the crime openly.

“For me, it was a targeted assassination because he was living in hiding in Kenya after receiving threats in Pakistan.”

Sharif, 50, had fled Pakistan earlier that year to avoid arrest on charges of maligning the country’s national institutions. This term is used for those who criticise Pakistan’s military, who have ruled the country for half of its 75-year history.