PAKISTAN: FIVE NAVAL OFFICERS GIVEN DEATH SENTENCE FOR ATTACK ON DOCKYARD

May 24, 2016: Five navy officers were given the death sentence by a Navy court in Pakistan for planning to hijack a warship and attacking one of the US Navy's refuel ships in 2014.
Sub-Lieutenant Hammad Ahmed and four other officials were convicted of the naval dockyard attack that took place on 6 September, 2014, Dawn online quoted retired Major Saeed Ahmed, father of Ahmed, as saying.
They were charged with having links with the Islamic State group, mutiny, hatching a conspiracy and carrying weapons to the Karachi dockyard, Saeed said.
Saeed claimed that the naval authorities did not provide his son the right to a fair trial.
"I wrote a letter to the Judge Advocate General (JAG) of the navy on 15 August, 2015, asking him to provide the opportunity of a defence counsel to my son," Saeed said.
"The Navy JAG on 21 September replied that the option of defence counsel would be available at the time of trial."
Saeed was waiting for the commencement of the trial but was recently informed that his son was shifted to the Karachi Central Prison.
He came to know about the capital punishment when he met his son and the other four officials -- Irfanullah, Muhammad Hammad, Arsalan Nazeer and Hashim Naseer -- in the prison.
There was no official word by the Pakistan Navy, he said.
"My son told me that a naval court had awarded death penalty to them after a secret trial," Saeed claimed.
He claimed that the five were made scapegoats as this was not the first time when such security lapses came to light. (Sources: IANS, 24/05/2016)