Pakistan on Friday sent a US official to jail on judicial remand, pending further murder investigations and a legal tussle over diplomatic immunity in a case that has inflamed ties with Washington. Raymond Davis appeared in a Lahore court accompanied by heavy police security, 15 days after he was arrested for shooting dead two men on motorbikes.
He has maintained he acted in self-defence. The US government says Pakistan is holding him unlawfully and demands his immediate release, saying that Davis is a "diplomat assigned to the US embassy in Islamabad" and has diplomatic immunity. "He has been remanded in judicial custody for 14 days. The next hearing will be on February 25," Punjab government prosecutor Abdul Samad told reporters.
A full report was not presented in court on Friday as "investigations were not completed," Samad said. "Most of the time was taken up by the defence lawyer on the issue of immunity. The judge said that the issue of immunity had been taken up by a higher court, so it was not in his purview," Samad said.
On February 1, the Lahore High Court blocked any move to free Davis and gave the foreign ministry 15 days to answer on whether he has diplomatic immunity. Nauman Atique, lawyer for the Pakistanis shot dead by Raymond, said Judge Aniq Anwar said the question of immunity was pending before the high court.
The US embassy was not immediately available for comment. Police official Suhail Sukhera told reporters that Davis was now being sent to the high-security Kot Lakhpat jail. Samad told reporters that Davis' lawyers had submitted two applications: one demanding immunity on his behalf and saying he cannot be put on trial, and the second asking for court proceedings to be held in-camera.
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