Sport Fixing case: All four awarded prision sentences
03 November, 2011
LONDON: The three suspended Pakistani cricketers found guilty of corruption were sentenced to prison by a crown court judge in London on Thursday.
Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif were jailed for 30 months and one year respectively. Mohammad Amir, who pleaded guilty before the trial of his two team mates, was sentenced to six months in a case that prosecutors said had revealed rampant corruption at the heart of international cricket.
Justice Jeremy Cooke said Butt got a harsher sentence than the other two players because he was "responsible for corrupting Amir".
"These offences, regardless of pleas, are so serious that only a sentence of imprisonment will suffice," Judge Jeremy Cooke told the four at London's Southwark Crown Court.
The players' agent, Mazhar Majeed was also sentenced to two years and eight months in prison.
Former captain Butt, 27, and opening bowlers Asif, 28, and Mohammad Amir, who had admitted his part in the scam before the trial started, plotted to bowl deliberate no-balls at pre-arranged times during the Lord's test in August last year.
During the three-week trial in London, the jury heard how an undercover reporter recorded sports agent Mazhar Majeed, 36, boasting he could arrange for Pakistan players to rig games for money and how huge sums could be made for gambling syndicates. Earlier on Wednesday, Amir made an impassioned apology for his involvement in the cricket spot-fixing scandal, saying his own stupidity had brought him down.
Cricketers Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif were found guilty on Tuesday of taking bribes to fix part of a test match against England in a case that prosecutors said revealed rampant corruption at the heart of international cricket.
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