Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Butt, Asif found guilty in spot-fixing trial

Pakistan cricketers Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif were convicted of fixing parts of a Test Match by a British Court on Tuesday.
A jury of the British Crown Court found former Captain Butt guilty of both counts  of conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to accept corruption payments as part of betting scam.
Asif was found guilty of a single count of conspiracy to cheat. Judge Jeremy Cooke had ordered the jury, to retire again to continue its efforts to reach at least a majority decision on the second charge against Asif.
Butt could possibly face an imprisonment of seven years in jail. The lesser charge of conspiracy to cheat carries a punishment of two years in prison.
During the match against England in 2010, Butt and Asif conspired with sports agent Mohammad Amir to deliver three intentional no-balls.
Butt, Asif and Amir had already received lengthy suspensions by ICC (International Cricket Council) anti-corruption tribunal in Doha for fixing parts of the Lord's Test.
Butt was banned for a term of ten years, five of which are suspended, Amir was banned for five years and Asif, a seven year ban, with two years suspended.
Cooke had asked the 12 jurors to accept that Amir was involved. The jury initially retired on Thursday but reported to Cooke on Monday that it was unable to reach a unanimous decision.
The allegations originally surfaced that Majeed was recorded by an undercover reporter working for the now-defunct News of the World tabloid saying that the three Pakistani players were indulged in betting whereby they had accepted money for fix betting markets.
Majeed was secretly filmed accepting 1,50,000 pounds in cash from the journalist. Butt said he had ignored the requests from Majeed, his agent, and Asif said he had only bowled the no-ball at precisely the time Majeed said it would be delivered because Butt had asked him to run faster moments before bowling.
News reported by  AR for Newsvision

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