Pakistan shifts trial account in shooting of Malala; all but 2 freed

FILE - In this Friday, Oct. 10, 2014, file photo, Malala Yousafzai poses with a bouquet after speaking during a media conference at the Library of Birmingham, in Birmingham, England, after she was named as winner of The Nobel Peace Prize. (AP Photo/Rui Vieira, File) (Rui Vieira/AP)

By Brian Murphy-June 5 

All but two of the Pakistani militants charged in the shooting of teenage activist Malala Yousafzai have been freed, authorities in Pakistan said Friday, sharply revising earlier statements that 10 suspects had been sentenced to life in prison for the 2012 attack.

The new account of the April verdicts said that the eight defendants were freed because of lack of evidence. But the statement did not explain why authorities were previously reported as announcing that all 10 had confessed to taking part in the assault and had been convicted and sentenced in the closed-door trial.

Gunmen believed linked to Pakistan’s Taliban stormed a bus in October 2012 and shot Yousafzai, then 15, and two classmates in Swat, where militants maintained a strong grip at the time. Yousafzai, a co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize last year, was targeted because of her push for education for girls and women.

Yousafzai, who now lives in Britain, underwent extensive medical treatment.

In late April, public prosecutor Sayed Naeem was reported as saying that 10 suspected militants had been convicted by an anti-terrorism court and each given a life term. At the time, he said all 10 confessed to a role in the shootings.

The Reuters news agency quoted Salim Khan, a senior police official, as now saying that eight suspects were freed by the court because of a “lack of proof against them” — suggesting possible shortcomings in the police investigation or other flaws in the case.

Terrorism-related trials are often closed to the public in Pakistan because judges, lawyers and others fear retribution from militants.

In Yousafzai’s book, “I am Malala,” she wrote about how militant groups seek to limit schooling and opportunities for girls.

“I had two options. One was to remain silent and wait to be killed,” Yousafzai said in her Nobel acceptance speech in December. “And the second was to speak up and then be killed. I chose the second one. I decided to speak up.”