Stani Army

Salman Butt and Mohammed Asif have both been found guilty on the charges of conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments. Earlier this morning, the jury had reached its verdict on both charges with regards to Salman Butt, yet were sent out to deliberate again on the charge of conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments in regards to Asif, since agreement could not be reached. In the last hour, they returned a guilty verdict on this charge also.

Both Butt and Asif were found guilty by a unanimous verdict in regards to the charge of conspiracy to cheat, and by a 10-2 majority verdict in regards to the charge of conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments.

The three players now await sentencing

Conspiracy to cheat carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison and/or an unlimited fine. Conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments carries the heavier sentence of up to seven years in prison and/or an unlimited fine.

The judge will now consider the verdict before the sentences will be pronounced later this week. In the mean time, both players remain on bail.

It has also emerged that Mohammed Amir had pleaded guilty to the charges on September the 16th, yet the news was not allowed to be reported due to court restrictions in place that would prevent the verdict of jurors from being unfairly influenced in regards to Butt and Asif.

At the time, Amir’s barrister Ben Emmerson QC said “Amir wants to make it clear he wants to take full responsibility for what he did by bowling two deliberate no-balls. This vulnerable 18-year-old boy, as he was then, was subjected to extreme pressure from those upon whom he should have been able to rely. He recognises the damage he has caused Pakistan cricket and he wishes to do his best to put that right”

By making Amir out to be the “vulnerable 18-year-old boy”, Amir’s legal team is hoping that he will receive a lighter sentence. Yet the prosecution presented a number of key bits of evidence that could be interpreted as Amir being everything but the innocent and vulnerable boy his team is trying to present him as.

Key to the prosecution’s evidence is a number of text messages Amir had sent to some unknown numbers and also to Azher Majeed, brother of the agent at the center of the scandal, Mazhar Majeed. One text message read: “Amir here, don’t call my phone, ICC-police have taken my phone, are you able to delete those calls you made to me? If you can do it okay, don’t reply”.

Whilst Pakistan fans were hoping for some clemency to be shown to Amir, evidence of his involvement in what went on has cast doubt over whether any leniency will be shown by the judge towards him. Of course, the one thing in his favour is that he did plead guilty, thus it is probably a given that he will receive a lighter sentence than Butt and Asif who have throughout the case maintained their innocence despite the overwhelming evidence against them. The best Amir can probably hope for is a heavy fine, but we will find out later this week how much lighter his sentence is than the one Butt and Asif are to receive.

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Tabrez Ali Janjua also writes at www.khelopakistan.com

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