8 of 10 men accused in shooting of teen Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai are acquitted
Malala Yousafzai. JStone / Shutterstock.com
News reports earlier this year said 10 men charged in the 2012 shooting of a Pakistani schoolgirl who subsequently became a Nobel laureate had been convicted and sentenced to life terms.
In fact, only two of the 10 were convicted and eight were acquitted in the attack on Malala Yousafzai, then 15 years old, Pakistan officials said Friday. The eight acquitted defendants are still jailed for other alleged crimes, police officer Saleem Khan Marwat told CNN, even though an anti-terrorism court found evidence was lacking to convict them in her shooting after a secret trial. Marwat serves in Pakistan’s Swat district.
However, other news accounts say the eight acquitted men have been freed. The BBC News reports it is not known where the eight are and says the fact that they were acquitted came to light when the Daily Mirror unsuccessfully tried to locate them.
Al Jazeera, CBS News, the Mirror, the New York Tmes (reg. req.), the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) and the Washington Post (reg. req.) also have stories.
Shot in the head and neck after a gunman boarded a school bus on which she was a passenger, Yousafzai survived the attack and was flown to the United Kingdom for treatment. She and her family now live there and cannot return to Pakistan due to Taliban death threats, the BBC reports.
It appears that she was targeted for attack because she had campaigned for the right of girls to be educated.
Now 17, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year.
A BBC News profile last year and a lengthy BBC magazine article published in 2013 give more details about her life and the 2012 attack.
