Eight accused of Malala shooting acquitted following secret trial

Eight out of 10 Pakistani Taliban militants allegedly convicted and jailed for the attempted murder of Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai were acquitted in a secret trial, it has been revealed.

Despite widespread media reports that 10 Taliban militants were jailed for the crime in April, senior Pakistani officials have now confirmed that only two militants were convicted and are serving their 25-year sentence.

In 2012, then 14-years-old, Malala was shot in the head while travelling on a bus to her school in Pakistan's Swat Valley. She was flown to Birmingham in Britain for emergency surgery and she remains in the country today.

While sources speaking to the Daily Mirror suggested that eight of the 10 militants were released recently after being jailed for weeks, senior Pakistani police sources have told the BBC and Reuters that only two of the 10 militants to have stood trial were originally convicted while the other eight were acquitted.

Saleem Marwat, district police chief in Swat, also confirmed to the BBC that only two people were charged over the crime and claimed that the figure was only stated as higher elsewhere because of "misreporting". All 10 men originally believed to have been convicted are members of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terror group.

The militants were acquitted following a secret trial because of a lack of evidence, according to officials. "The only reason for their release was lack of proof against them," senior police official Salim Khan told Reuters.

Another security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, revealed that a secret retrial took place, with only a judge, public prosecutor and members of the armed forces present to witness their release. "10 men are not behind bars, as the Pakistani authorities would have us believe. That is a big lie," the official told the Daily Mirror.

"The trial had ­absolutely no credibility as nobody was there to witness it but a public prosecutor, a judge, the army and the accused," the source added. "This was a tactic to get the media ­pressure away from the Malala case because the whole world wanted ­convictions for the crime."

Azaad Khan, the police chief for Pakistan's Swat Valley where the incident took place, identified the two Taliban prisoners serving their sentences as Izharullah and Israr ur Rehman, according to the newspaper.

Yousafzai, now 17, won the Nobel Peace Prize last year and shared the award with child human rights activist Kailash Satyarthi. She also donated her £50,000 (€68,200 ) prize money for winning the World's Children's Prize to the reconstruction of United Nations schools damaged by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in last summer's Gaza conflict.

Last year, the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for a massacre at a school in Peshawar, in which a number of the group's militants stormed the building wearing suicide vests, killing 141 people, including 132 children. In response to the attack, Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif reinstated the death penalty for terrorism cases, resulting in a number of executions.

Update: This article originally stated that the militants were jailed for weeks before being acquitted. The article has been updated to reflect the differing reports on the release of the eight militants.

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