Appealed in LHC: GHQ attack convicts request trial documents

On February 16, Justice Rauf Ahmed Sheikh dismissed five identical petitions seeking trial proceedings.

LAHORE: Four men convicted for their roles in the 2009 terrorist attacks on General Headquarters (GHQ) filed an appeal with the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday asking for the provision of documents from their military trial’s proceedings.

Aqeel Ahmed alias Dr Usman, Muhammad Usman alias Ishfaq, Wajid Mehmood and Muhammad Khaleequr Rehman challenged the February 16 high court verdict and urged the court to direct the military authorities to try them.

On Thursday, a division bench of the LHC comprising Justice Khawaja Imtiaz Ahmed and Justice Chaudhry Muhammad Younis will take up the four intra-court appeals (ICA) filed through advocates Tariq Asad and colonel (retd) Inamur Raheem.

On February 16, Justice Rauf Ahmed Sheikh of the LHC Rawalpindi Bench dismissed five identical petitions seeking trial proceedings.

Making the defence secretary and Judge Advocate General (JAG) as respondents, the petitioners had urged the two-member bench to set aside the earlier order and stop the military authorities from constituting an army court of appeal to hear the pleas of the convicted men without any material in their defence.

The petitioners stated before the court that on March 1, JAG wrote a letter asking them to appear before an Army Court of Appeal on March 10 for the final hearing of their appeals against the August 11 Field General Court Marshal (FGCM) decision.

They said that in two separate cases, the high court had already directed military and naval authorities to provide trial documents to the court and the defendants.

In response, JAG had maintained that the chief of army staff (COAS) had denied the provision of trial documents to the convicted men under army rules and the lawyers of the convicts would be allowed to study the documents to prepare their appeals.

The military authorities had charged Ahmed, Rehman, Usman, Mehmood, and Imran Siddiqi, Muhammad Adnan and Muhammad Tahir Shafique with 17 different charges ranging from murder, terrorism and taking hostages, to deserting the army and launching an attack on the armed forces on October 10, 2009.

On August 11, 2011, the court sentenced Ahmed to death, Siddiqi, Rehman, Usman and Mehmood to life, and the other two to 10-year jail terms.