Asif loses match-fixing appeal in London

LONDON: Former Pakistan- fast-bowler Mohammad Asif has lost his appeal over his match-fixing conviction at the Royal Courts of Justice here.
Asif, 30, the former world number two Test bowler, was released from jail in May last year after serving half of a 12-month sentence after being originally convicted at the London’s Southwark Crown Court in November 2011 over the spot-fixing scandal. Judges at the Court of Appeal in London said that Asif did not have an arguable case for attacking his conviction.
The spot-fixing scandal had rocked Pakistan after ex-captain Salman Butt, Muhammad Asif and Muhamamd Amir were found allegedly involved in the scandal alongwith their agent Mazhar Majeed. Butt was jailed for 30 months for his role as the “orchestrator” of a plot to bowl deliberate no-balls in the 2010 Lord’s Test against England while Mohammad Amir was detained for six months in a young offenders institution at Feltham. Majeed was jailed for two years and eight months.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) barred the trio from playing for five years.Lord Judge, sitting with Mr Justice Openshaw and Mr Justice Griffith Williams, rejected Asif’s latest bid to challenge his conviction and held that the original convictions were right.
Giving the decision of the court, Mr Justice Griffith Williams said: “We are not persuaded that there are any grounds, arguable or otherwise, for attacking the safety of the convictions of this applicant. The renewed applications are accordingly dismissed.”
Asif’s UK lawyer Ravi Sukul of Balham Chambers had brought the appeal before the court and had hoped that the paceman’s two convictions imposed by the Southwark Crown Court will be overturned.
Barrister Ravi Sukul told The News prior to the hearing that Asif “remains defiant in his sustained claim of no involvement in the spot-fixing scandal that marred the 2010 test match series in England”.
He said he will argue that “both convictions are unlawful” and that his client’s appeal is “based upon possible misdirections given by the trial Judge to the jury that convicted the fast bowler in November 2011”.In November 2011, the Court of Appeal dismissed challenges brought by Butt and Amir against their sentences.
Lord Judge said at that time: “These three cricketers betrayed their team, they betrayed the country which they had the honour to represent and betrayed the sport that had given them their distinction — and of course betrayed all the very many followers of the game throughout the world. In exchange for the privilege and distinction of playing Test cricket, what was required of them was that at all times they should perform honestly and play to the best of their respective abilities — no more, and certainly no less.”