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A Kenyan high court on Monday ruled that Kenyan police’s 2022 killing of a prominent Pakistani journalist violated the constitution, and awarded compensation to the reporter’s widow, the Telegraph reported.
Arshad Sharif, 49, was a famed news anchor who fled Pakistan after receiving death threats for criticizing his home country’s military and elite, and sought shelter in Kenya. On Oct. 23, 2022, he was shot dead by local police at a roadblock.
The killing has long remained a mystery, with no officers arrested or charged. Justice Stella Mutuku criticized the lax investigation by Kenya’s attorney general and the director of public prosecutions, asking authorities to conclude their inquiry.
Kenyan police officials said its officers opened fire because they had mistaken Sharif’s vehicle for a van that was used to kidnap a child even though there were marked differences between the abductor’s van and Sharif’s car, the Diplomat wrote.
Authorities then offered contradictory statements, a panel of Pakistani investigators said later. Their 592-page report developed a theory that Sharif’s death was a “planned assassination” where Kenyan police were used as “instruments.”
Sharif’s widow, Javeria Siddique, had argued an unnamed individual in Pakistan had ordered the murder, the BBC reported.
Monday’s ruling demanded the Kenyan government compensate Siddique and Sharif’s family $78,000.
“This is a win for the family and a win for Kenyans in their quest for police accountability,” said Siddique’s lawyer, Ochiel Dudley.
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