Bomb scare conviction quashed after errors by prosecution

A Pakistani man who spent 10 months in jail for creating a bomb scare had his conviction quashed yesterday due to errors by the prosecutors and an interpreter.

In overturning the conviction against the man, named Shahid, High Court judge Ian McWalters said the Punjabi-to-English interpretation had been flawed.

One part of the particulars in the charge had been wrongly removed by the prosecution, making the charge "defective".

A spokesman for the Department of Justice confirmed that part of the charge had been "inadvertently omitted".

When reading another charge to the man, an interpreter had wrongly translated the term "with intention to induce … other persons to believe that a bomb … is present" to "with intention to scare" people that a bomb could be detonated.

Asking for Shahid's plea, the interpreter asked him only: "Do you plea [ ] guilty?", omitting the words "or not guilty".