Pakistani Justice: Eight Pakistani Taliban Acquitted in Attack on Teenage Activist Malala Yousafzai

In April officials said 10 men sentenced to life, though now only two apparently convicted

Eight of 10 men previously said to have been sentenced to life in prison for an assassination attempt on Pakistani teenage activist and Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai were actually acquitted, police officials and lawyers said on Friday.

The apparent acquittals and the secrecy surrounding the trial will raise further questions about Pakistan’s justice system, which has been criticized for years for failing to adequately investigate and prosecute terrorists.

Officials declined to comment on whether the eight acquitted men had been freed or remained in custody.

Pakistani officials had said in April that 10 militants had been convicted for their involvement in the assassination attempt and sentenced to life in prison, which is equal to 25 years under Pakistani law. Officials at the time and now didn’t provide details of the judgments or about the trial, which was held in secret in an antiterrorism court inside a prison.

Pakistani Taliban gunmen targeted Ms. Yousafzai in October 2012 when she was on her way home from school in Mingora, the main town in Pakistan’s northwestern Swat Valley. They stopped the school van, asked students to identify her and then shot her in the head, wounding her seriously. After being stabilized at a military hospital, she was flown for treatment in the U.K., where she and her family have lived since.

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