Pakistani lawyer to try and halt drone strikes

[The Northerner]

A British-trained Pakistani lawyer announced today that he intends to use courts in Pakistan, the UK and the United States to try and halt drone strikes in the country’s tribal areas.

Mirza Shahzad Akbar, a Pakistan-based lawyer who studied in Britain, has already filed a case against the CIA in Islamabad which resulted in the American intelligence services having to evacuate their station chief after he was named in the suit.

The case was brought on behalf of Karim Khan, a journalist in Waziristan whose son and brother were killed in a drone strike in January 2009, and has paved the way for scores more families to make similar claims. Farooq Law Associates, the law firm behind the suits, said yesterday that a further 24 civilians who have either been injured or lost family members in drone strikes have now been identified to bring further cases.

“More and more families who were victims of drone strikes are coming forward looking for justice,” he said. “We want to give human identities, names and life stories to those people who until recently were just numbers.”

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/pakistani-lawyer-to-try-and-halt-drone-strikes-2281538.html

[gratuitous]

1. Good luck with that, Mr. Akbar

But the empire doesn't really have to follow any prissy "rules" or "laws." We have already determined what constitutes "justice," and the survivors of our attacks aren't entitled to it.