Pakistan court dismisses Indian spy's review plea

Islamabad, Mar 9: Pakistan's top court today (Mar 9, 2006) dismissed the first of four review petitions filed by an Indian man convicted of spying and bomb blasts and sentenced to death, his lawyer said.

Sarabjit Singh was sentenced to death in 1991 for spying and carrying out four bomb blasts that killed 14 people in all.

The sentence was met with widespread dismay in India and led to calls for President Pervez Musharraf to pardon him.

Singh's defence team filed four separate petitions for review, one for each of the four bomb blasts, after the Supreme Court rejected his appeal against his conviction last year.

Singh's lawyer, Rana Abdul Hameed, said a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court dismissed the first petition on technical grounds, saying it had been filed too late.

Singh's family says he is a poor farmer from a border village who accidently wandered into Pakistan in 1990 while he was drunk.

Pakistani officials say Singh was arrested while trying to slip back into India after the bomb blasts.

The Indian Government has pressed for clemency for Singh but has not made a formal request on his behalf.

REUTERS