NAIROBI, Kenya — The widow of a distinguished Pakistani journalist who was killed a 12 months in the past in Kenya filed a lawsuit on Wednesday in opposition to an elite Kenyan police unit she accuses of the wrongful loss of life of her husband.
Javeria Siddique mentioned she filed the lawsuit in Nairobi to get justice for her husband Arshad Sharif, a widely known journalist in his dwelling nation Pakistan. Sharif was shot {dead} on October 23, 2022 by officers from Kenya’s Basic Service Unit, in line with Pakistani authorities. The officers concerned within the incident later claimed it was a case of mistaken identification.
In courtroom papers seen by The Related Press, Siddique desires Kenya’s Legal professional Basic, the Nationwide Police Service and the Director of Public Prosecutions “to punish and prosecute the law enforcement officials who killed Arshad Sharif.”
The lawsuit additionally desires the courtroom to direct the Legal professional Basic “to difficulty a public apology, together with an acknowledgement of the information, and acceptance of accountability to the household of Arshad Sharif inside seven days of this courtroom’s order.”
“I’m suing the GSU as a result of they dedicated the crime brazenly, then admitted that it was a case of mistaken identification. However for me it was a focused assassination as a result of he was dwelling in hiding in Kenya after receiving threats in Pakistan,” Siddique mentioned in a cellphone interview with the AP.
“The Kenyan authorities by no means issued any apology. They by no means contacted us, they by no means confirmed any sort of kindness towards us. It’s actually merciless for a authorities to be so insensitive,” Siddique added.
Sharif, 50, was a vocal critic of Pakistan’s former military chief Qamar Javed Bajwa. He fled Pakistan final July to keep away from arrest for criticizing the nation’s highly effective army and later arrived in Kenya.
Police in Nairobi mentioned the journalist was shot and killed when he didn’t cease driving at a roadblock on the outskirts of the capital. The household, rights teams and Pakistani investigators countered that the killing was an assassination deliberate in Pakistan.
In Islamabad, police charged two Kenyan-based Pakistani businessmen, who had hosted Sharif within the East African nation, with involvement in his killing.
Sharif’s mom wished the Supreme Courtroom of Pakistan to make sure the questioning of Bajwa and different former army officers she accused of involvement in conspiring to assassinate her son.
Information of the killing shook Pakistan and hundreds attended Sharif’s funeral because the nation mourned final 12 months. Sharif’s mates, household and colleagues have demanded justice for him on social media and held rallies throughout Pakistan to attract consideration to the case.
The investigators’ 592-page report, issued final 12 months, concluded that the Kenyan police issued contradictory statements following the killing of Sharif.
Pakistan’s army has denied any involvement within the killing of Sharif, and mentioned it might help investigators analyzing who was behind it.
Based on Kenyan police’s web site, the Basic Service Unit is tasked with offering safety to the president and at strategic factors, controlling civil disturbance and counter-terrorism.
Kenya’s Nationwide Police Service and the Unbiased Policing Oversight Authority, a physique accountable for holding the police to account, didn’t reply to AP’s requests to touch upon the lawsuit.