Pakistan court declares Musharraf fugitive in Benazir murder case

Anti-terrorism court sentenced 2 senior police officers to 17 years in jail in Benazir murder case

A Pakistani anti-terrorism court on Thursday declared ex-military leader Pervez Musharraf an "absconder" in the murder case of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and acquitted five people of the killing.

As an absconder, Musharraf legally must be arrested and brought to trial if he returns to Pakistan after being allowed to leave the country in 2016. The court also ordered Musharraf's property in Pakistan seized.

Bhutto was assassinated in a suicide and gun attack in Rawalpindi in 2007, weeks after she returned from exile to campaign in elections to bring back civilian rule.

Five accused members of the Pakistani Taliban were found not guilty for lack of evidence by the anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi, just outside Islamabad.

Musharraf was charged in 2013 of being culpable in Bhutto's murder. He seized power in a 1999 coup but stepped down nine years later after allowing new elections.

He is now in self-imposed exile, having been allowed to leave the country in March 2016 for health reasons while awaiting trial on that and other charges.

The court also found two police officials guilty in the case, one of mishandling security at the Bhutto rally and the other of mishandling the crime scene. Each was jailed for 17 years. Judge Asghar Khan announced the verdict in court, where former Rawalpindi CPO Saud Aziz and former Rawal Town SP Khurram Shahzad — suspects out on bail — were also present. 

Aziz and Shahzad were sentenced to 17 years in prison and ordered to pay a fine of Rs 5 lakh each.

While five other accused have been acquitted, former president Musharraf has been declared a proclaimed offender, with an order to seize his property.