Pakistan 'al-Qaeda pair' freed

Two men held in detention in Pakistan for nearly six months on suspicion of links with al-Qaeda have been released from prison - almost a week after they were acquitted of the last charges remaining against them.

Doctor Khawaja (right) and his brother have been held since December

The Supreme Court ruled on Saturday that the detention of Ahmad Javed Khawaja and his brother Naveed could not be extended under existing security laws, which provide for detention without trial.

Despite being charged by the anti-terrorist court in April they were not formally accused of al-Qaeda links.

Instead, they were charged on four different counts, including the possession of illegal weapons and foreign passports.

They were among nine members of the same family taken into custody last December.

The two men were kept in detention on court orders after the other seven were released.

'Hard time'

Relatives hugged the two men as they walked out of Kotlakpat jail near the city of Lahore, where they had been held.

"Thank God the hard time is over," the doctor told reporters.

Defence lawyer Pervez Inayat Malik said: "We fought and we won because we were right. My clients were innocent, and the time proved it."

The trial, which lasted six weeks, was held in the prison and reporters were not allowed in.

In all, the prosecution produced seven witnesses - all of them police officials - while the defence submitted documents to show there was no substantial charge to be answered.

The anti-terrorism judge had found the defence version more plausible than the prosecution's, Mr Malik told the BBC last week.

More than 400 people suspected of links with al-Qaeda have been rounded up in Pakistan since the US launched its war on terror in Afghanistan in October 2001.