Kenyan police sued by widow of Pakistani journalist

The widow of a prominent Pakistani journalist who was killed a year ago in Kenya filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against an elite Kenyan police unit she accuses of the wrongful death of her husband.

Javeria Siddique said she filed the lawsuit in Nairobi to get justice for her husband Arshad Sharif, a well-known journalist in his home country Pakistan. Sharif was shot dead on October 23, 2022, by officers from Kenya's General Service Unit, according to Pakistani authorities. The officers involved in the incident later claimed it was a case of mistaken identity.

In court papers seen by The Associated Press (AP), Siddique wants Kenya’s Attorney General, the National Police Service, and the Director of Public Prosecutions “to punish and prosecute the police officers who killed Arshad Sharif.”

The lawsuit also wants the court to direct the Attorney General “to issue a public apology, including an acknowledgment of the facts, and acceptance of responsibility to the family of Arshad Sharif within seven days of this court’s order.”

“I am suing the GSU because they committed the crime openly, then admitted that it was a case of mistaken identity. But for me it was a targeted assassination because he was living in hiding in Kenya after receiving threats in Pakistan," Siddique said in a phone interview with the AP.