Pakistani lawyers denounce killing *****

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LAHORE, May 4, (agencies): Groups of Pakistani lawyers Wednesday held protests over the US killing of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, denouncing America and saying prayers for their "hero". The Al-Qaeda chief was discovered and killed in a family villa in the town of Abbottabad, a mile from Pakistan's equivalent of West Point and a mere 30 miles (50 kilometres) from the capital Islamabad. About 70 lawyers staged a rally in Abbottabad, condemning the US operation in their city, witnesses said. They shouted "Go, America go," "Osama bin Laden is our hero" and chanted slogans against the US-allied and deeply fractured Pakistani government. "We condemn terrorism but cannot accept any violation of our sovereignty," said Tahir Faraz Abbasi, president of the local bar association. In the northwestern city of Peshawar, where bin Laden once lived during the fight to evict Soviet troops from nearby Afghanistan, about 200 lawyers offered special prayers for the Al-Qaeda supremo at the courts. "Osama was a Muslim hero. He had been waging jihad (holy war) for Muslims across the world," said prominent local lawyer Ghulam Nabi. "I doubt Osama was in Abbottabad. Even if he were, he was our hero and he will remain our hero," he said. Conspiracy theories, fanned by deep distrust of the United States, have raced like wildfire through Pakistani communities over bin Laden's killing. Meanwhile:: The United States revealed that Osama bin Laden was unarmed when US commandos shot him dead and that Pakistani authorities were kept in the dark because they might have tipped off the Al-Qaeda leader. Unusually frank remarks from the CIA chief betrayed the extent of distrust between the United States and Pakistan, a nuclear-armed ally and key partner in the war against the resurgent Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan. "It was decided that any effort to work with the Pakistanis could jeopardize the mission," Leon Panetta told Time magazine. "They might alert the targets." US officials, meanwhile, debated whether to scotch conspiracy theories by releasing a "gruesome" photo of the dead bin Laden, conscious that such an image would likely inflame strong passions in some Muslim countries. The White House gave the fullest account yet of the dramatic and momentous raid that killed the architect of the September 11, 2001 attacks and sparked scenes of relief and joy around the Western world. But officials did not clearly explain why bin Laden was shot dead and not captured given that he was unarmed, fueling speculation that the elite Navy SEAL team had been ordered on a kill mission. Meanwhile: The killing of Osama bin Laden when he was unarmed has raised concerns the United States may have gone too far in acting as policeman, judge and executioner of the world's most wanted man. But for several Muslim leaders, the more unsettling issue is whether the al Qaeda leader's burial at sea was contrary to Islamic practice. The White House said Tuesday that bin Laden had resisted the U.S. team which stormed his Pakistan hideout and that there had been concerns he would "oppose the capture operation". Spokesman Jay Carney declined to specify what sort of resistance bin Laden offered but added: "We expected a great deal of resistance and were met with a great deal of resistance. There were many other people who were armed ... in the compound." Former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt told German TV the operation could have incalculable consequences in the Arab world at a time of unrest there. "It was quite clearly a violation of international law," . It was a view echoed by high-profile Australian human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson. "It's not justice. It's a perversion of the term. Justice means taking someone to court, finding them guilty upon evidence and sentencing them," Robertson told Australian Broadcasting Corp television from London. "This man has been subject to summary execution, and what is now appearing after a good deal of disinformation from the White House is it may well have been a cold-blooded assassination." Robertson said bin Laden should have stood trial, just as World War Two Nazis were tried at Nuremburg or former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was put on trial at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague after his arrest in 2001. "The last thing he wanted was to be put on trial, to be convicted and to end his life in a prison farm in upstate New York. What he wanted was exactly what he got - to be shot in mid-jihad and get a fast track to paradise and the Americans have given him that." Gert-Jan Knoops, a Dutch-based international law specialist, said bin Laden should have been arrested and extradited to the United States. "The Americans say they are at war with terrorism and can take out their opponents on the battlefield," Knoops said. "But in a strictly formal sense, this argument does not stand up." A senior Muslim cleric in New Delhi, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, said U.S. troops could have easily captured bin Laden. "America is promoting jungle rule everywhere, whether in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan or Libya. People have remained silent for long but now it has crossed all limits." Son Had, spokesman for Jema'ah Ansharut Tauhid, the Islamic group founded by Indonesian firebrand Abu Bakar Bashir, said it was clear that bin Laden had become a martyr.