Autopsy confirms Arshad Sharif was tortured, report handed to family

LONDON/NAIROBI: A post-mortem examination of slain journalist Arshad Sharif has been handed over to his family and the Kenyan authorities, well-placed sources said.

There were signs of torture on Sharif’s body at the time of post-mortem in Pakistan, revealed the autopsy report.

It can be confirmed that Sharif’s post-mortem report has now been handed over to his mother in Islamabad and also shared with Kenyan authorities including the Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA), Inspector General of Police (IGP-Kenya) and Director Public Prosecution Kenya.

Family sources have confirmed that Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) senior director Ather Waheed met Arshad Sharif’s mother Riffat Ara Alvi in Islamabad and handed over the post-mortem report to her. 

Ather Waheed and Omar Shahid Hamid are two senior investigators who visited Kenya for a week to investigate the killing of Arshad Sharif.

A copy of the same post-mortem report has been received in Kenya through Pakistan’s official diplomatic channels. This report mentions there were torture marks on Sharif’s body.

Reports of torture surfaced when anchor Kamran Shahid published pictures of the torture and then a PIMS doctor told Shahzeb Khanzada on Geo News that doctors had noted signs of torture.

Denials of torture have come from both the Kenyan as well as Pakistani sides.

Kenya government sources have confirmed to Geo News that it has received the post-mortem report.

When contacted to confirm, a source in FIA said: “It is Sharif’s mother’s right to know the truth and the journalist’s family have every legal right to have access to it."

Ather Waheed from FIA met the family more than once and updated the family about the progress so far in the case and handed over the post-mortem report to the family”.

The Kenya government source said the fact that Pakistan handed over the post-mortem report to Kenya authorities meant the local authorities must answer questions about the reports of torture.

Separately, FIA Director-General Mohsin Hassan Butt said the evidence gathered by Pakistan so far suggested clearly that Sharif was killed in a well-organised planned assassination in Kenya and that the Kenyan police didn’t produce before two Pakistani investigators one of the shooters, who actively shot at the slain journalist.

'Kenya police was involved in the targeted killing'

Speaking to Geo News in an interview, the top FIA official said it looked certain that the senior journalist was the victim of a murder plot and this is based on the evidence Pakistan had gathered so far.

“We believe that the Kenya police was involved in the targeted killing of Arshad Sharif,” the senior FIA officers said.

The DG FIA confirmed that the investigation officials from Pakistan wanted to question four shooters of Kenyan police about the incident but the Kenyan police produced only three.

Arshad Sharif was killed in Kenyan capital Nairobi on October 23 when he was returning from the AmmoDump shooting site towards the capital of Kenya. He was being driven by Khurram Ahmad, a Nairobi-based businessman.