PAKISTAN. VIOLENCE USED TO GET CONFESSIONS FROM CONVICTS: LAWYER

a defence lawyer accused Pakistani police of using violence and threats to extract confessions from seven men convicted in the 2004 assassination attempt against Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
On May 22, an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi sentenced four of the men to death and three to life in prison for the attack. They were described as members of an outlawed Pakistani militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammed.
An eighth suspect in the case was acquitted for lack of evidence.
Aziz was unhurt in the July 30, 2004, suicide bombing in Attock, west of Islamabad, but nine others, including the bomber, were killed.
Basharatullah Khan, a lawyer for two of the suspects, including the one who was acquitted, alleged that police had produced no evidence linking the accused men to a terrorist group or any outlawed militant organisation, and had used force and threats to extract confessions.
Khan also said one of the prosecution witnesses told the judge he had been beaten by police, kept awake for three days and his family threatened by the police to force him to give a statement against the suspects.
Khan said his convicted client, Mohammed Sulaiman, who was sentenced to death, was kept in police custody for between three and four months before he was produced in court. He alleged that police beat and deprived Sulaiman of sleep to pressure him into a plea bargain.