Banned trio to appear in London court on 20th

Banned Pakistan cricketers Mohammad Aamir and Mohammad Asif left for London on Tuesday morning to appear for their case before the Crown Prosecution Service. Pakistan’s former captain Salman Butt, however, will not travel to London on the advice of his lawyer, Yasin Patel.
Sources close to Butt said Patel had advised him he was not required to appear for the May 20th hearing and he (Patel) would represent him. The three were banned for at least five years for their involvement in spot-fixing. After the ban imposed by an ICC tribunal, the three have appealed in the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) and are awaiting the date of hearing.
A few moths back when the allegations of spot-fixing surfaced, the Crown Prosecution Service indicted the players in the case. The International Cricket Council (ICC) banned Muhammad Aamir for five years, Muhammad Asif for seven years and Salman Butt for 10 years in spot-fixing case. Asif left for the United Kingdom on Tuesday to attend the hearing of the criminal charges brought against him. Salman and Amir face their case at a Southwark crown court in London on May 20.
Asif briefly told the media before leaving that he was committed to contesting the charges against him in the case and prove his innocence. The ICC banned the three players for their involvement in spot-fixing during their Test match against England at Lord’s last year. The trio appealed against the verdict with the Court of Arbitration for Sports in Geneva but were later also charged by the Crown Prosecution Services special crime division with conspiracy to commit fraud and cheating.
The three alongwith their agent, Mazhar Majeed , a British businessman, appeared before a magistrate in Westminster in March but were bailed to reappear at the Southwark Crown Court on May 20 to go and face the charges. They will now stand trial on charges of conspiracy and cheating. The charges came out of events arising from the fourth Test at Lord’s last year, when the three players were alleged to have conspired to bowl no-balls at specific times at the behest of Majeed.
The alleged conspiracy was first revealed in the News of the World, which published footage of Majeed receiving 150,000 pounds from undercover reporter Mazher Mahmood. The three players and Majeed are charged with conspiracy to accept corrupt payments, an offence under the 1906 Gambling Act in UK and conspiracy to assist others to cheat at gambling. The offences carry sentences of up to seven years imprisonment.