RAYMOND DAVIS, the CIA spy charged with murder in Pakistan, has been freed after the families of two dead men agreed to drop charges in exchange for financial compensation.
The law minister of Punjab province, Rana Sanaullah, made the announcement hours after Mr Davis appeared at a makeshift court in the jail where he was being held. He was freed under the Islamic “blood money” provision of Pakistani law, whereby an accused murderer can be freed on payment of financial compensation to the family of the victim.
A senior Pakistani official said the US spy had left the country and was en route to Afghanistan on board a special flight.
Officials said the US paid in the region of $700,000 to each of three families whose relatives were killed. Two were shot dead by Mr Davis and a third was hit by a rescue vehicle. The official said Washington had also agreed to “be helpful” to immediate family members who may wish to leave Pakistan for the US or the Gulf.
The sudden release of the 36-year-old former green beret is the dramatic conclusion of a case that has become a national obsession in Pakistan since he opened fire on two men in Lahore on January 27th, killing both of them.
Mr Davis said he was acting in self-defence against robbers but Pakistani prosecutors charged him with murder, saying the evidence suggested he intended to kill the two men. Some Pakistani officials said the two were linked to Pakistan’s ISI spy agency, which became embroiled in a barely concealed row with the CIA.
The case has become a major block to already fragile relations between Pakistan and the US, with officials from Barack Obama down insisting that Davis was a diplomat and therefore entitled to immunity. – (Guardian service)