Pakistan drops case against former CIA station chief

30 Apr 2015

Jonathan Bank and agency's former acting general counsel were charged in relation to a deadly drone strike in 2009.

Bank and Rizzo were charged over the deaths of three men in a drone strike in 2009 [AP]

Pakistani police have dropped a case that was recently registered against a former CIA station chief and a former agency lawyer over a 2009 drone strike that killed two people.

Police officer Mohammad Nawaz told the AP news agency on Thursday that the case against former acting general counsel John A. Rizzo and ex-station chief Jonathan Bank had been dropped because the drone attack did not happen in the jurisdiction of the Islamabad police station where the case had been registered.

Bank's cover was blown in 2010 when a Pakistani man threatened to sue the CIA over the deaths of his 18-year-old son and his brother in a purported drone strike in a Pakistani tribal region. A third man was also killed in the attack.

A judge had ordered criminal charges to be filed against the pair earlier in April.

Kareem Khan, whose relatives died in the attack on New Year's Eve in 2009, had demanded $500m in damages, accusing the CIA of targeting civilians.

A number of media outlets reported the strike near Mir Ali in North Waziristan at the time. Pakistani intelligence officials said then that the men belonged to an armed group, but offered no proof.

The case resulted in angry protests against the CIA, calling for Bank's expulsion from the country. The CIA recalled Bank in December 2010.

Bank later worked on the CIA's Iran operations team, and the Pentagon's intelligence arm.

Source: Agencies