Five men not guilty of aiding Benazir Bhutto's assassin

Five men have been acquitted of involvement in the
murder of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir
Bhutto in Rawalpindi almost 10 years ago.
The men - who had been accused of being Taliban
militants - are set to be released almost 10 years
after first being arrested.
They were acquitted because of a lack of evidence,
although prosecutor Khawaja Imtiaz said they had
confessed during the investigation.
Two police officers have, however, been convicted
over their handling of the crime scene.
Senior officer Khurram Shahzad was accused of
hosing down the scene less than two hours after the
killing.
Saud Aziz, who was chief of Rawalpindi police, was
accused of giving Shahzad permission to hose down
the scene, and of refusing, multiple times, to allow a
post-mortem of Ms Bhutto's body.
Each received two prison sentences of seven and 10
years, to run concurrently.
They are the only two people to have been convicted
in connection with Ms Bhutto's murder.
Pervez Musharraf returned to Pakistan in March
2013 after four years of self-imposed exile
In addition, Pakistan's former military ruler, Pervez
Musharraf, who was charged in 2013 over Ms
Bhutto's murder, has been declared an "absconder".
That means Musharraf, who was allowed to leave
Pakistan last year, must be arrested and brought to
trial if he returns.
His property in Pakistan is also to be seized, the
court ordered.
He is the first former army chief to face criminal
charges in the country.
Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on 27 December
2007, not long after returning from exile to campaign
for a return to power.
Her assassin is thought to have shot her in the neck
before blowing himself up.
Educated at Oxford and Harvard, she became the
first female prime minister of an Islamic country at
the age of 35, after military dictator Zia ul-Haq died
in a plane crash in 1988.
Elected twice, she was also thrown out twice
because of allegations of corruption, going into exile
when Pervez Musharraf took over in 1999.
When she returned in 2007, she was hoping for a
third term in power after the following year's
elections.

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