Tainted trio’s preparatory hearing begins today

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LONDON: The preparatory hearing of the spot-fixing case against Pakistan’s tainted trio would begin at the Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday (today), a spokesman at the Southwark Crown Court confirmed on Monday.

Justice Cook would conduct the hearing which will last for two days, the spokesman told ‘The News’, adding: “Since it is a multi-handler hearing, all three players have been asked to appear in person.”

Muhammad Asif’s lawyer Robert Binning confirmed that the fast bowler would be appearing before the court on Tuesday. Muhammad Amir is also expected to attend the hearing and so will agent Mazhar Majeed.

However, former captain, Salman Butt will be exempted from attending the hearing since he is unable to travel to London, ‘The News’ has learnt.

The spokesman said the proceedings related to an application to dismiss the case lodged by the defence. There will be arguments before the trial judge however the players would not be cross-examined at this stage.

During a hearing on May 20, Justice Saunders of the same court, approved the bails of the players, but directed that the accused must appear before the court in the end of July for a preparatory hearing.

The defence had argued that the court should consider exempting the players from the next appearance as it will only be a procedural hearing and matters related to the trials will be settled and no pleas will be entered.

However, the lawyer, representing the Crown Prosecution Service, argued that the three players should appear in person and “video link appearance from Pakistan should be ruled out as there were frequent power outages” in that country.

Asif, Amir and Butt are charged with conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments from a third party after News of The World newspaper unfolded the match-fixing scandal.

Their London-based agent, Majeed, is accused of accepting £150,000 to arrange for the players to bowl no-balls in Pakistanís Test match against England at Lord’s in August.

During the two-day hearing on Tuesday and Wednesday, it will be decided as to who will conduct the trial and where, what are the disclosures and who will form the defence team, lawyers said.