Lawyers slate Bhutto trial
NZPA-Reuter London An international group of lawvers headed by the former United States AttorneyGeneral, Ramsey Clark, has said that the trial of Pakistan’s late former Prime Minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, did not meet even minimum standards of justice and Islamic law. The lawyers released their findings after a two-day convention called to study the trial of Mr Bhutto, who was executed last week for ordering the murder of a policial opponent. The lawyers criticised what they called the bias of the trial court, its failure to maintain an open trial and keep an accurate record, and the denial of proper facilities to the defendant in the conduct of his defence. Lawyers from the United States, Britain, Switzerland, Syria, and Turkey attended the convention, which was organised with the help of Mr Bhutto’s sons, Mir and Shah Nawas. In Pakistan, 3000 students opposed to Mr Bhutto have marched through the streets of Lahore and burned an office of Mr Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party.
The march came after three days of pro-Bhutto demonstrations in mourning for the former leader. No police intervention was reported when students in Lahore, supporting the antiBhutto Pakistan National Alliance, marched through the downtown area to burn the party office. No casualities or arrests were reported. Earlier the police in several cities arrested hundreds of pro-Bhutto people. A Punjab Government spokesman has said the police dispersed Bhutto supporters who were trying to set fire to a post office in Multan, 644 km south-east of Islamabad. At Mardan City in northwestern Pakistan, half a dozen people were reported arrested in a clash between Butto supporters offering funeral prayers and the police firing tear-gas. In India, club-swinging police kept more than 400 people from crossing into Pakistan from Kashmir 10 protest against Mr Bhutto’s hanging, the United News of India reported. Pro-Bhutto protests in Kashmir in recent days have left six people dead and dozens injured.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19790409.2.57.10
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Press, 9 April 1979, Page 8
Word count
Tapeke kupu
320Lawyers slate Bhutto trial Press, 9 April 1979, Page 8
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Copyright in all Footrot Flats cartoons is owned by Diogenes Designs Ltd. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise these cartoons and make them available online as part of this digitised version of the Press. You can search, browse, and print Footrot Flats cartoons for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Diogenes Designs Ltd for any other use.
Acknowledgements
Ngā mihi
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.
Log in