In Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf, who ruled the country from 1999 to 2008, was sentenced to death. He is accused of declaring a state of emergency in 2007. The verdict was handed down by a specially created court of three judges, chaired by the head of the High Court of Peshawar, Wakar Ahmad Seth.
“Pervez Musharraf was found guilty under Section Six of the Constitution of Pakistan,” Salman Nadim, legal representative of the government, told Reuters.
This legal provision recognizes as a traitor "any person who repeals, undermines or suspends" the basic law, while using violence or the threat of violence. According to the court, Musharraf, as the initiator of the introduction of martial law, which suspended a number of constitutional freedoms, falls under this definition.
The general came to power in 1999 as a result of a military coup. In 2001, he declared himself president of the country. But over the seven years of Musharraf’s reign, political stability in Pakistan has not come. The main reason is that in neighboring Afghanistan in 2001, an NATO forces operation began, which Musharraf supported and, for his part, launched a fight against religious radicals in Pakistan.
In 2008, against the backdrop of the outbreak of protests in the country, he left his post and left for London. In 2013, Musharraf returned to take part in the parliamentary elections, but the Pakistani authorities made several charges against him at once. The former leader of the Islamic Republic was arrested and placed under house arrest. In one of the criminal cases brought against him in 2014, there was a charge of high treason. According to him, a verdict was passed.
However, in 2016, the republic’s authorities allowed Musharraf to leave Pakistan to undergo treatment in the UAE. The politician did not return home.
US ally
In November, Musharraf issued an appeal from a hospital in Dubai, where he stated that he considered the process against himself unfair. From the statement of the politician it follows that he does not want to return voluntarily to his homeland.
- Musharraf has many supporters in Pakistan
- Reuters
- © Akhtar Soomro
Experts say it is unlikely that Musharraf will return and stand trial.
“Since he is in exile, then most likely the Arab Emirates will not give him away. And therefore, the current verdict has more symbolic meaning, ”Boris Volkhonsky, associate professor at the Institute of Asian and African Countries at Moscow State University, said in an interview with RT.
The same point of view is shared by Vladimir Sotnikov, senior researcher at the IMEMO Center for International Security. According to him, the extradition of Musharraf to Pakistan is unlikely even not so much because the Pakistani authorities will not insist on it, but because the UAE authorities will not go to extradite the former leader of the country.
“Their policy on this issue has long been defined: the UAE authorities do not issue political emigrants. In addition, we should not forget that Musharraf did not leave the country empty-handed. He has enough opportunities to just buy himself the right to stay in Dubai, ”Sotnikov said.
According to Boris Volkhonsky, the sentence to Musharraf primarily indicates the strengthening of the political opposition against the military.
“The history of this country has developed in such a way that practically no serious decision in political life was made without the participation of the army. So it was even if the government was, as now, civil. Musharraf’s death sentence was imposed in order to show that the situation is changing somewhat, that civilian authorities are able to act without regard to the armed forces, ”the expert believes.
Vladimir Sotnikov also believes that the sentence to Musharraf is political and symbolic.
“From a legal point of view, Musharraf did not commit any crimes except that he had at one time ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. In principle, in Pakistan this is not considered a criminal offense, ”he told RT.
The trial of the ousted dictator who came to power as a result of a military coup is extremely unusual for Pakistan, experts say.
“Military coups have occurred here more than once. And the charge of treason against Musharraf has never been brought against anyone, ”said Sergei Lunev, professor at the Department of Oriental Studies at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in an interview with RT.
Dual Position of the States
Experts do not exclude that, despite the gravity of the verdict, Musharraf may be acquitted in the future - his influential foreign ally Washington can insist on this. According to Vladimir Sotnikov, it is unlikely that the Americans would remain indifferent to the trial of the former leader of Pakistan, because without the support of the then Pakistani leadership, the United States would hardly have been able to carry out an operation to invade Afghanistan in 2001.
- Afghan religious radicals receive support from Pakistan
- Reuters
“Naturally, the Americans will defend Musharraf,” Sotnikov believes.
In turn, Boris Volkhonsky believes that the United States will stand up for the Pakistani leader in order to prevent Islamic radicals from using the Musharraf trial in their propaganda.
“When the Americans launched the operation against the Taliban in 2001, the Islamists in Afghanistan and Pakistan were very unhappy that, at the initial stage, Musharraf provided assistance and support to the Americans. Therefore, they will consider this verdict a kind of retaliation for cooperation with the United States, ”Volkhonsky said.
At the same time, a number of experts believe that the attitude of Americans to the Musharraf case is more complex.
"Musharraf himself once said that the words of one of the American officials who allegedly told him that if Pakistan refuses to help, the Americans will return him with their bombs to the Stone Age," he explained, Sergey Lunev explained.
At the same time, Lunev recalled that the Pakistani army after the overthrow of Musharraf took a very cautious position on the issue of cooperation with Washington, since the idea of supporting NATO’s Afghan operation is extremely unpopular in Pakistan. This was the case in 2001, and the situation has not changed until now, the expert believes.
“Remember where Osama bin Laden lived? In the most guarded city of Pakistan, ”said Lunev.
Recall that the leader of the al-Qaida terrorist group * was killed on the night of May 2, 2011 in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, where he was allegedly hiding since 2005 - that is, from the period when Pakistan was led by Musharraf.
Since the death of terrorist No. 1, there is a lot of evidence that for so long and successfully he hid not without the help of Pakistani security forces.
So, in 2013, Al Jazzera TV channel published a report of a special commission established by the Supreme Court of Pakistan to investigate the actions of American intelligence agencies to detain Osama bin Laden. It states that the Pakistani authorities had many chances to detain the terrorist. However, for six years of his search, the attention of the Pakistani security forces for some reason did not attract the villa in Abbotobad, surrounded by barbed wire. In the report of the commission, this is called only the criminal negligence of the Pakistani military.
However, the Americans may have a different opinion on this subject, notes Lunev.
“It is clear that the US will oppose the execution of the death sentence to Musharraf. They do not need a politician who has been working with them for so many years to be executed. But at the same time, Washington has no reason whatsoever to fully justify this person and consider him one hundred percent his own, ”the expert concluded.
* Al-Qaeda - an organization recognized as terrorist by decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 02.14.2003.