Amir, Asif & Salman Spot fixing Punishment

It took a while coming but it seems that justice was finally done. Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Amir and Mazhar Majeed were all sentenced to jail terms by the Southwark Crown Court.

Following the four-week trial at Southwark Crown Court, Butt and Asif were each found guilty of conspiracy to accept corrupt payments and conspiracy to cheat, offences that carry a maximum jail term of seven years. Amir and Majeed had already pleaded guilty.

Majeed received the longest jail term — 32 months. Next up, was former Pakistan skipper Butt — he got 30 months. Asif received a jail term of one year. And Amir, the youngest of the lot, was sentenced to six months imprisonment but the term was later revised to 6 months of detainment at ajuvenile offenders’ institution.

Each of the accused will serve half the time in custody and then they will be released on licence. If they breach their licence or commit any other offence, they will be brought back to serve the remainder of their sentence.

Judge Jeremy Cook told Butt that it was clear that he was the orchestrator of this activity.

“Clear to me that you were orchestrator of this activity.” he said. “You were involved in fixing before the Lord’s Test but will only be punished for Lord’s Test.”

And this was the reason why Butt received a harsher sentence than the other players.

After the sentences were handed down, the players reacted with stunned silence. They collected their bags, and were ‘taken down’ to the holding cells, then Wandsworth Prison. Amir is headed to the Feltham YoungOffenders Insitute.

Amir’s lawyer says he is planning to appeal his sentence. Judge had told Amir his sentence would be a “deterrent.” All the players have the right to appeal to a higher court.