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CIA Pak killer freed after $2M payoff
(NY Post) – An American CIA contractor who shot and killed two Pakistanis was released from a Lahore prison yesterday after some $2 million was paid to the victims’ relatives, ending a tense standoff between the United States and its tenuous ally.
Raymond Davis, 26, was pardoned for the Jan. 27 killings — which he claimed were in self-defense during a robbery — after 19 relatives of the victims appeared in court and officially agreed to drop the charges in exchange for financial compensation, a practice allowed under Pakistani (Sharia) law.
The Colorado resident was immediately whisked out of Pakistan, where his release prompted a rash of protests.
IT WASN’T U.S. GOVERNMENT MONEY
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton didn’t deny someone paid off the families, but insisted it wasn’t the US government.
Raymond Davis pardon documents
The Express Tribune has received scanned copies of Raymond Davis’s signed application for settlement through blood-money (diyat). The documents, which include the signatures of the families of the victims gunned down in Lahore can be viewed here.
Davis was released by a Sessions Judge Yousuf Aujla yesterday after the families of the victims pardoned Davis in exchange for blood money. Federal Minister for Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan has said that the release of Davis after the payment of blood money is in accordance with Shariah Law.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
