LA Times – A CIA contractor charged with murdering two Pakistani men was freed Wednesday after the victims’ families pardoned him and accepted financial compensation, a resolution viewed by many analysts as the best option to soothe strained relations between the U.S. and Pakistan while minimizing the potential for a volatile reaction from Pakistanis who wanted the American tried and convicted.

Just hours after a trial court judge in Lahore announced Davis’ formal indictment on murder charges, Raymond Davis, a 36-year-old American, was on a plane headed for London. Rana Sanaullah, a Punjab provincial law minister, said Davis’ release was triggered by the decision of the families of the two Pakistani men to accept diyat, an Islamic tradition included in Pakistani law that permits the heirs of a murder victim to accept financial compensation in exchange for pardoning the accused.

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