Re: Court clears Nawaz, Shahbaz in money laundering case
It is not … no jail for rich. Anyhow, rich may get away with some crimes if there are enough loop-holes and the lawyers they have are good enough to use those loop-holes. But justice system is not that blind in west, what or anyone want to believe.
For instance … Jeffery Archer … was multi-millionaire, very highly placed in conservative party. very close to Margret Thatcher … and was sent to prison when Margret Thatcher was prime Minister (one of the strongest PM UK has seen) … still, She could do nothing to stop him going to prison. Person who got Archer was ordinary police policeman (in Pakistan, leave Lords, they could not even act against Prime Minister or minister … rather they are expected to break law themselves on order of thugs in government).
Those who convicted Jeffery Archer were juries, and on conviction of juries, Judge sent Jeffery Archer to 4 years prison (for lying … just imagine). No influence worked. Crime was also not that severe If we talk about Pakistani values, as just few days ago, Nawaz Shareef did worse crime then Jeffery Archer, lying in Parliament to his peers (what is worse lie anyone can imagine, being PM and lying to parliamentarians blatantly on question asked … maligning Pakistan Army). For the crime of Nawaz Shareef, in any civilized world, he would have sent to prison on high treason charge.
BBC NEWS | UK | Disgraced Archer begins jail term
Friday, 20 July, 2001, 07:26 GMT 08:26 UKDisgraced Archer begins jail term
Disgraced millionaire peer Jeffrey Archer is starting the first day of a four-year prison sentence on Friday after being found guilty of perjury and perverting the course of justice.
Lord Archer was taken to the high-security Belmarsh prison in south east London on Thursday afternoon, where he is expected to stay until he is transferred to a low-security jail.
In another twist to the case, Lady Archer could now face a police inquiry over the evidence she gave to her husband’s trial.
Questions about her testimony were raised by the trial judge, Mr Justice Potts, and detectives have said they will now “reflect” on whether she should be interviewed.
The policeman who led the investigation, Detective Superintendent Jeff Hunt, said: "I’ve heard what was said.
“We’ll take our time to consider those comments and reflect on it in due course.”
There have been calls for Lord Archer to be stripped of his lifetime peerage.
But this looks unlikely so far as there is no legal precedent, except in cases of treason.
Lord Archer’s co-defendant Ted Francis, who triggered the novelist’s downfall, was found not guilty of perverting the course of justice.
Mr Francis told ITV’s Tonight With Trevor McDonald that he was relieved with the verdict and now wanted to get on with his life.
‘Liar, cheat and chancer’
“I would not argue with the verdicts.”
He said his relationship with Lord Archer has been “totally breached”.
“We have no relationship at all,” he said.
The Old Bailey jury found that Lord Archer had lied and cheated in his 1987 libel case against the Daily Star, which had printed a story claiming he had slept with a prostitute.
The newspaper, which had to pay £500,000 in damages at the time, has issued proceedings to get its money back plus interest - a total of £2.2m.
‘No sympathy’
Its editor Peter Hill said: "No one should have any sympathy for Jeffrey Archer.
“He is a proven liar, a cheat and a chancer, a man so arrogant that he thought he was above the law. Now finally he has got what he deserved.”
The News of the World newspaper will also be seeking about £300,000 from Lord Archer for an out-of-court settlement and costs paid over the prostitute claims.
Sentencing Lord Archer Mr Justice Potts said: “These charges represent as serious an offence of perjury as I have had experience of and have been able to find in the books.”
He said it gave him “no pleasure at all” to sentence him and branded the whole case “extremely distasteful”.
Lord Archer, who was ordered to pay £175,000 costs within 12 months, was told by the judge he would have to serve at least half of his sentence.
He was cleared by the jury of one count of perverting the course of justice.
Lord Archer’s solicitor, Tony Morton-Hooper, has said his client planned to appeal.
There have been calls for Lord Archer to be stripped of his peerage but a House of Lords spokesman said he would not lose it despite his conviction.
He told BBC News Online after the verdict: “There is no precedent for a life peerage being removed. I think treason would be the only exception.”
‘Undemocratic place’
Labour MP Andrew Mackinlay tabled a Commons motion on Thursday calling for legislation to disqualify peers imprisoned for criminal offences from sitting in the Lords, in the way that a MP would be excluded from the Commons.
“Not only is it an undemocratic place, but you could commit murder and when you get out of prison you could still go back into the House of Lords.”
Harold Brooks-Baker, publisher of Burke’s Peerage, called for a system to remove disgraced peers.
“It’s high time the Commons worked on a bill to deal with peers who have committed very serious crimes - otherwise it makes a nonsense of the peerage.”
[What labour MP meant is that house of lord is undemocratic place … as people become lords on recommendation … but then people once becoming Lord stay Lord till death … what is wrong too]