Sources Say Malala Yousafzai Attackers 'Secretly Acquitted'
Sources are claiming that eight of the ten Taliban gunmen convicted of attacking teen education activist Malala Yousafzai in 2012 have been "secretly acquitted" of their 25-year jail terms this week.
Muneer Ahmed, a spokesman for the Pakistani High Commission in London, reportedly told BBC News on Friday that eight of the ten men originally sentenced for involvement in Yousafzai's attack have been secretly acquitted by the court due to lack of evidence.
The two men who remain guilty were the two who actually shot Yousafzai in the head as she traveled home from school in 2012. Yousafzai was attacked for criticizing the Taliban's control of Pakistan's Swat Valley in online blog posts.
The BBC notes that there have been conflicting reports as to the outcome of the trial, which was held privately over the past several months.
Sayed Naeem, a public prosecutor in Swat, reportedly claimed following the trial that "each militant got 25 years in jail. It is life in prison for the 10 militants who were tried by an anti-terrorist court."
A security official close to the investigation reportedly told the Daily Mirror that the Pakistani government is telling a "big lie" by claiming that all ten of the suspects had been charged and sentenced to life imprisonment in Pakistan, which is 25 years.
"Ten men are not behind bars, as the Pakistani authorities would have us believe. That is a big lie," the anonymous security official told the media outlet.