USA welcomes Hafiz Saeed's conviction

WASHINGTON: The United States of America (USA) has welcomed conviction of Hafiz Saeed and termed it as an important development, ARY News reported on Thursday.

Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Alice Wells in her tweet said, today’s conviction of Hafiz Saeed and his associate is an important step forward and Pakistan is fulfilling its commitments to combat terrorist financing.

Today’s conviction of Hafiz Saeed and his associate is an important step forward – both toward holding LeT accountable for its crimes, and for #Pakistan in meeting its international commitments to combat terrorist financing.

— State_SCA (@State_SCA) February 12, 2020

An anti-terrorism court on Wednesday had convicted Hafiz Saeed, chief of the banned Jamaatud Dawa (JuD), in two cases of terror-financing.

Lahore anti-terrorism court had awarded five and half years prison sentence and a fine of Rs 15,000 in each case.

Read more: Lahore court convicts Hafiz Saeed in two terror-financing cases

The court had announced sentences in both cases registered in Lahore and Gujranwala, which will run concurrently. Hafiz Saeed was arrested in July last year in connection with the terrorism financing case while on his way from Lahore to Gujranwala.