Karachi bomb verdict delayed

By Paul Anderson
BBC correspondent in Islamabad

The judge heading the trial of two Pakistanis accused of involvement in the killing of 11 French engineers last year has postponed the announcement of his verdict.

Several people were injured in the Sheraton blast

Judge Mahmood Bhatti said he would deliver his verdict next week, on 30 June.

Judge Bhatti told the BBC he needed more time to incorporate the evidence of the 40 witnesses who took part in the trial into the legal document which will contain his verdict.

Eleven naval technicians helping Pakistan assemble a French submarine were killed when a suicide bomber in a car packed with around 150 kilograms of explosives rammed into a bus carrying the engineers.

Two Pakistanis and the bomber were also killed.

Not guilty plead

The attack happened in May, 2002, near the Sheraton Hotel in central Karachi.

The trial has taken place in a special anti-terrorism court, presided over by just one judge in the central jail in Karachi.

The accused both belong to extremist militant organisations, Harkat Jihad Ul-Islami and Harkat Ul-Mujahideen.

They have pleaded not guilty to charges of terrorism, use of explosives and conspiracy to murder.

If convicted they face the death penalty.

Lawyers for the accused have said the evidence against them was fabricated. The Sheraton attack was one of two deadly attacks against Westerners in the city at the time.

In the other, suicide bombers attacked the American consulate, killing 12 Pakistanis.