Pakistan drops charges against FBI agent

Court dismisses case against US law enforcement agent detained for carrying ammunition on flight, upon police request.

FBI agent Joel Cox had spent three nights in jail before being freed [AP]

A Pakistani court has dropped a case against a US law enforcement agent charged with weapons offenses for trying to board a flight while carrying bullets and a knife in his luggage.

Police said on Monday that they had asked for the case to be cancelled, after authorities had arrested Joel Cox, a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, at Karachi’s airport on May 4 after he tried to board a civilian flight with the knife and 15 9mm bullets.

“Since he was not carrying a weapon, only bullets were found from his luggage, the investigation report recommended the cancellation of the case,” Inspector Khalid Mehmood told Reuters news agency.

Cox had spent three nights in jail before being freed on a $10,000 bond, Reuters reported.

In 2011, Pakistan arrested a CIA contractor, who shot dead two men he thought were trying to rob him, souring US-Pakistani ties at a time when the two nations were already deeply suspicious of each other.

The detained contractor, Raymond Davis, was eventually freed after the payment of “blood money” to the families of the two men, a practice allowed by Pakistani law.

Source: Reuters