CIA Contractor Freed With $2M Payment

Pakistan has freed Raymond Allen Davis, the CIA contractor who killed two Pakistanis, after the victims’ families pardoned him in exchange for $2.34 million in “blood money” paid according to Sharia law. Sharia blood money, or diyya, is commonly used to settle cases in Pakistan; representatives of the victims’ families were required to appear in court to verify that they had pardoned Davis, who left the country immediately. The contractor had been in jail since Jan. 27, creating a diplomatic rift between the U.S. and Pakistan. The U.S. claimed he should receive diplomatic immunity, but the Pakistani government, amid protests from religious leaders, had refused to grant it.