Pakistan court sentences former dictator Musharraf to death
ISLAMABAD _ A court in Pakistan on Tuesday handed down a death sentence to former military ruler Pervez Musharraf on treason charges, his lawyer said, in a decision hailed as a "good omen" for the country's coup-prone democracy.
The three-judge special court announced the decision in the capital Islamabad after several years of court proceedings against Musharraf, who ruled Pakistan between 1999 and 2008.
Two out of three judges found Musharraf guilty of abrogating Pakistan's constitution in 2007 to purge the higher judiciary to avoid legal challenges to his rule.
Musharraf, 76, and now living in exile in Dubai, overthrew the government of the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless military coup in 1999.
The dictator rose to prominence on the world stage after joining the US-led war on terrorism in Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States by Al Qaeda.
dpa
