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Judge grants bail for ex-Pakistani leader | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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File photo—In this photograph taken on April 20, 2013, former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf is escorted by soldiers as he arrives at an anti-terrorism court in Islamabad. (AFP PHOTO/AAMIR QURESHI/FILES)


File photo—In this photograph taken on April 20, 2013, former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf is escorted by soldiers as he arrives at an anti-terrorism court in Islamabad. (AFP PHOTO/AAMIR QURESHI/FILES)

In this photograph taken on April 20, 2013, former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf is escorted by soldiers as he arrives at an anti-terrorism court in Islamabad. (AFP PHOTO/AAMIR QURESHI/FILES)

Islamabad, AP—A court granted former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf bail Monday in a case related to the death of a radical cleric, paving the way for an end to his more than six-month house arrest, his defense lawyer said.

Musharraf, who has been plagued by legal troubles since he returned to Pakistan in March after years of self-imposed exile, already has been granted bail in three other cases against him. However, he is still prevented from leaving the country, his lawyer Ilyas Saddiqi said.

Saddiqi said Musharraf was granted bail because there was no evidence to prove his involvement in the death of the radical cleric, who was killed during a raid on a hard-line mosque in Islamabad in 2007. Prosecutors could not be immediately reached for comment.

Musharraf ordered the raid against the Red Mosque after students there began harassing massage parlors, stores in the capital that sold music and other targets that they felt promoted vulgarity. The people holed up in the mosque fought for days. The raid ended with nearly 100 people dead, including at least 10 army commandos. The army said it seized a large cache of arms from the mosque when the siege was over.

The incident severely damaged Musharraf’s reputation in the country and earned him the undying hatred of militants who launched a series of punishing attacks following the raid. The case stems from a complaint filed by the son of the mosque’s cleric who died in the siege. The son had been pushing for Musharraf to be investigated but police refused until a judge in Islamabad ordered them to open a case in early September.

Saddiqi said the bail granted Monday means Musharraf should be free to leave his house on the outskirts of Islamabad, where he has been held under arrest since April.

The other cases he faces have to do with his alleged role in the murder of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the death of a Baluch separatist leader killed by the army and the detention of Pakistani judges.