LHC grants bail in Libya boat tragedy case

Says bank transfer alone not proof of human smuggling

LAHORE:

LAHORE

The Lahore High Court (LHC) has granted post-arrest bail to a man accused in a human-smuggling case linked to a migrant boat that capsized off the Libyan coast, killing 73 people.

The court ruled that the mere transfer of money into an accused's bank account is insufficient to establish guilt unless it is directly connected to his knowing involvement in a criminal network.

Justice Muhammad Amjad Rafiq, while deciding the post-arrest bail petition of Muhammad Tahir, observed that investigators had only established that funds were routed through a bank account bearing the petitioner's name, the Madina Traders account.

He noted that the investigators themselves concluded that a third party, Akbar Ali of Gojra, actually operated and controlled the account.

The court held that this finding undermined the prosecution's case against Tahir, as it failed to establish his connection with an organized human-smuggling network or show that he knowingly received the money to facilitate migrant smuggling.

On that basis, the court ruled that the petitioner had made out a case for further inquiry and ordered his release on bail against surety bonds of Rs500,000.

In its detailed order, the court outlined the evidentiary threshold required to establish a prima facie case under the Prevention of Smuggling of Migrants Act, 2018, describing it as a "51 per cent likelihood" that investigators must establish through admissible evidence rather than mere suspicion.

It explained, section by section, the type of evidence investigators are expected to collect in migrant-smuggling cases, including documentary and digital evidence such as financial ledgers, travel documents, electronic communications, call data, site inspections and victims' travel histories, to establish a suspect's intentional and active involvement in human smuggling under Section 3 of the Act.