Brig Ali, 4 majors jailed over Hizbut Tahrir connection

A military court has convicted five senior officers, including Brigadier Ali Khan, who was arrested after the killing of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad on May 2 last year, for having links with Hizbut Tehrir, a banned organization. Brigadier Ali was handed a five-year prison sentence. The four others convicted by the army court are Major Sohail Akbar, who received a three-year sentence, Major Jawad Baseer, who got two years and Major Inayat Aziz and Major Iftikhar, who received one-and-a-half year sentences, according to an ISPR statement issued here on Friday. The statement did not name the banned organization but it has been identified in the past by Pakistani officials as Hizb-ut-Tahrir, a Britain-based political party, which has been outlawed in Pakistan.
“Field General Court Marshal (FGCM) proceedings against Brigadier Ali Khan, Major Inayat Aziz, Major Iftikhar, Major Sohail Akbar and Major Jawad Baseer have been completed. All four accused have been convicted besides other, of the charges for having links with a proscribed organization,” said the ISPR statement. “Convicts have the right to an appeal against conviction before the Army court of appeals as provided in the Pakistan Army Act,” it said. Brigadier Ail was initially charged with conspiring to overthrow the civilian government but some charges were dropped later, according to an official here who sought anonymity. According to some media reports, which appeared after his arrest, Brigadier Ali had been highly critical of the Pakistani army command over its relationship with the US. According to a BBC report, in his statement before the court, Brigadier Khan said that he was being victimized for speaking out against officers who he said had let the al-Qaeda leader alive in Pakistan for five years and then allowed US forces to kill him. “During the court-martial proceedings witnesses – mostly army officers – told the court that Brig Khan wanted to bring about an “Islamic revolution”, the report said. The army officers said he was working with Hizbut Tahrir to establish a caliphate in Pakistan, according to the report.