'Blood Money' Springs CIA Contractor From Pakistan Jail
Lucky for him. Raymond Davis, the CIA contractor who was nabbed in January after shooting and killing two men in Pakistan (the news of which wasn’t released until February), has been freed from detainment after the payment of “blood money” to the victims’ families. –KA
The Christian Science Monitor:
Some 18 relatives of the two slain men, Muhammad Fahim and Faizan Haider, were present in court to accept the money “and independently verified they had pardoned him [Davis],” provincial law minister Rana Sanaullah told private television channel Geo News.
Blood-money, or “diyya,” is routinely used to settle murder cases in Pakistan, in compliance with Sharia law. It was seen as the last ditch effort to free Davis by the US authorities after the Lahore High Court failed to accept US claims of diplomatic immunity on Monday.
In comments to reporters in Cairo, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denied that the US made the payment Wednesday. Though the US denies paying compensation in the case, Pakistani media reports indicate that more than $2 million were given to the two families, though this could not be verified at time of writing.