Pakistan judge to accused American: no immunity

ISLAMABAD - Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor accused of killing two Pakistani men on January 27th, on Thursday appeared in a Pakistani court which refused to accept his plea that he was posted as a diplomat at the time of the shooting, as the foreign ministry in Islamabad cautioned against the case being seen as causing long term damage to ties between the two countries.

The case has already inflamed anti-US sentiment in Pakistan-a country where Washington remains deeply unpopular, especially for its use of pilot-less drones employed to attack suspected militant sites on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.

A judge who heard the case at the 'Kot Lakhpat' jail where Davis is being kept, in Lahore-the city where the killings took place, according to government officials, turned down Davis' plea that he should be considered immune from prosecution in view of his diplomatic immunity.

Separately in Lahore too, the provincial high court of the Punjab province, of which Lahore is the capital, is hearing a case to consider if Davis should be recognized as a diplomat armed with immunity. Pakistan's foreign ministry is expected to formally present its view on Davis' status in a hearing which is due to take place on March 14th.

Last month, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Pakistan's former foreign minister, was forced to leave the cabinet over apparent differences with president Asif Ali Zardari and prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani over the Davis case. Subsequent to his departure as foreign minister, Qureshi has publicly defended his decision to deny issuing a diplomatic immunity to Davis.

The case appears to have deeply upset relations between the United States and Pakistan, just at a time when the two countries are locked in a close security relationship to confront militants in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. "Pressure from the US has come from the highest level of government in Washington," a Pakistani foreign ministry diplomat on Thursday told CBS News while speaking on condition of anonymity.

"I have not seen such friction in US-Pakistan relations in a very very long time," added the diplomat.

But Salman Bashir, Pakistan's foreign secretary - a position which makes him the senior most diplomat with a status only second to the foreign minister - told journalists it would be "premature" to conclude that the Raymond Davis case had caused lasting damage to U.S.-Pakistan relations. While conceding that the matter was "a complex issue," Bashir refused to discuss the Davis case further on the grounds that the issue was "sub-judice (being heard in court)."

Western diplomats based in Islamabad warned the controversy had already caused much harm to U.S. relations with Pakistan. "On the streets of Pakistan, there are many stories making the rounds about the CIA's activities in Pakistan. The Raymond Davis case has demonised the US role in Pakistan, more than any other case for a very long time," said one western ambassador in Islamabad who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity.