Renowned American author Mark Siegel, who is also a key witness in slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's murder case, on Saturday declared the former President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf as Benazir's murderer. According to a private television channel, the copies of Mark Siegel's statement have been released to all the parties to the case.
According to Siegel's statement, Benazir had written to Pervez Musharraf about the threats to her life. The statement says that a secret agency of the Gulf traced a call in which Benazir's murder was being planned. Mark Siegel went on to say that Pervez Musharraf promised to provide mobile jammers for Benazir's security but it was learnt only after the tragedy that the jammers provided by Pervez Musharraf were not working.
In his statement, Siegel told that Benazir received a threat call from Pervez Musharraf before him on September 25, 2007 in his presence and Benazir was extremely troubled after receiving the call. Earlier this month, the statement by Mark Siegel was recorded before the court in which Siegel had claimed that Musharraf had linked Benazir s security to good relations with him. The copy of the statement was released by the court yesterday.
Pervez Musharraf had, however, dismissed the accusations by Mark Siegel. Denying any telephonic contact with Benazir Bhutto, Musharraf termed Siegel s statement as heap of lies.
Musharraf has denied that he established telephonic contact with Benazir Bhutto. The former President said that if Benazir Bhutto was under threat from him then she would not have asked for security from him. He said that his opponents were using the journalist's statement against him.
Musharraf inquired as to why hadn't the revelations come in the book that had been edited under the supervision of Mark Siegel. It is pertinent to mention here that Siegel had revealed in his statement that Musharraf told Benazir that her life was in danger and that her security was linked to better relations with him. Siegel told the court that he was with Benazir when the former president made the threat call. He said that Benazir listened to this phone call in Tom Lantos' office and Benazir looked quite troubled after the call.