Sharif, an ardent supporter of former premier Imran Khan, was shot in the head when Kenyan police opened fire on his car in October 2022. He had left Pakistan in August 2022 after multiple cases of sedition were registered against him in different cities. It was reported that he initially stayed in the United Arab Emirates after leaving Pakistan and later went to Kenya, where he was murdered.
His widow Javeria Siddique and two journalist groups in Kenya filed a complaint last year against top police and legal officials over the “arbitrary and unlawful killing” of Sharif and the respondents’ “consequent failure to investigate”.
On Monday, the High Court in Kajiado, a town south of Nairobi, rejected a police claim that the killing was a case of mistaken identity, and that officers’ believed they were firing on a stolen vehicle involved in an abduction.
Judge Stella Mutuku ruled that Sharif’s murder was unconstitutional and that his rights to life and protection were violated, Kenyan media said.
“I find that the respondents, jointly and severally through their actions violated the rights of the petitioners,” Mutuku said, according to The Nation.
Siddique’s lawyer Ochiel Dudley confirmed the court ruling to AFP, describing it as a “great precedent for police accountability”.
He said the ruling found “Kenya violated Arshad Sharif’s right to life, dignity, and freedom from torture, cruel, and degrading treatment”.
He said the court ordered the government to pay 10 million Kenyan shillings (Rs21.7 million) in compensation.
The Kenyan court said the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and Independent Policing Oversight Authority had violated Sharif’s rights by not prosecuting the two officers involved, Dudley added.
It ordered the two institutions to conclude their investigations and charge the two police officers, he said.
In a post on X, Siddique said: “Me and all of you have won Arshad Sharif’s case in Kenya.”
In a video statement, she lamented that no one had supported her in her effort apart from the nation and some journalist associations.
“Thank you for all the strength you give us with your comments,” she said, adding that it was necessary to do all she did to set an example that journalists could not be wantonly killed or harassed.
Siddique said she had gotten justice from Kenya but it still remained to be given in Pakistan.Javeria Siddique, wife of slain journalist Arshad Sharif, on Monday filed a lawsuit against Kenyan police, according to her lawyer.
Arshad Sharif, an ardent supporter of former premier Imran Khan, was shot dead in Nairobi in October last year.
Initial reports on his killing by the Kenyan media quoted local police as saying that Sharif was shot dead by police in a case of “mistaken identity”. But later reports from the Kenyan media reconstructed the events surrounding the killing, stating that an occupant in Sharif’s car at the time of his killing was believed to have shot at paramilitary General Service Unit officers.
Last week, Sharif’s wife told AFP in Islamabad that she was filing a lawsuit.
Today, her lawyer confirmed it had been lodged at Kenya’s High Court, a year to the day since the late-night killing.
“Yes. The case has been filed,” lawyer Ochiel Dudley told AFP in Nairobi, adding that they were waiting for a case number and further instructions from the court.
“It has been a year that I have been fighting for justice,” Javeria Siddique said. “The Kenyan police admitted that they killed my husband but never apologised.”
“I have written to the Kenyan president and foreign minister but they were not even kind enough to say sorry,” she added.
Sharif had left Pakistan in August 2022 after multiple cases of sedition were registered against him in different cities. It was reported that he initially stayed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after leaving Pakistan and later went to Kenya, where he was murdered.
The government subsequently formed a team that travelled to Kenya to investigate the killing. A progress report of the murder probe was furnished before the Supreme Court — which has taken suo motu notice of the case — in March.
The matter was also addressed in an unprecedented conference in October last year, where the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt Gen Nadeem Ahmed Anjum had joined former Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) DG Lt Gen Babar Iftikhar to speak about the journalist’s killing.
The Islamabad police had registered the FIR against the murder on the orders of the Supreme Court in December 2022.
The complaint was lodged by the station house officer of the Ramna police station, Rasheed Ahmed, and nominated three persons — Waqar Ahmed, Khurram Ahmed, and Tariq Ahmed Wasi.
The FIR invoked Sections 302 (punishment for murder) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
It stated that the murder took place in Kenya on October 23. The complainant said that he reached the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences on the night of October 26 when Sharif’s body reached the hospital and a postmortem examination was carried out.
After that, he said the medico-legal officers handed over four parcels of evidence to the police. The FIR added that according to the postmortem report, Sharif died due to the firing of ammunition.
Siddique had questioned then why the case was registered on the complaint of the police when the slain journalist’s family members were still alive. She had said that the FIR could only be lodged by her mother-in-law (Sharif’s mother).
Last month, an Islamabad district and sessions court stopped proceedings in the case of journalist Arshad Sharif’s killing due to a “lack of interest” from the prosecution
