Islamabad:A Pakistani court convicted and sentenced four men to death and three to life in prison for a 2004 suicide attack against Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, an official said.
In its ruling on Monday, the anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi, a garrison city near the capital of Islamabad, acquitted an eighth suspect in the case for lack of evidence, a court official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
Aziz was unhurt in the July 30, 2004, attack but nine others, including the bomber, were killed.
Aziz was targeted weeks before he took office as prime minister when he was getting into his car to return to Islamabad after an election campaign meeting in Attock, a rural district west of the capital.
His driver was among those killed.
A militant group calling itself the "Islambouli Brigades of Al-Qaida" claimed responsibility, but the official said the seven convicted men were all Pakistanis and members of an outlawed Pakistani militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammed.
Judge Safdar Hussain Malik of the anti-terrorism court sentenced the men for planning and abetting the attack, the official said.
Four suspected ringleaders remain at large, he said.
The three men who got life were brothers arrested in January 2005 for allegedly harbouring the two suicide bombers before the attack.
The suicide belt of one attacker malfunctioned and did not explode, and he fled.
The roles of the four who got the death penalty were not immediately clear.
The convicts can appeal the sentences within seven days.
The attack on Aziz followed two December 2003 bombings targeting President General Pervez Musharraf in Rawalpindi.
Musharraf narrowly escaped both attacks unhurt but 17 others were killed.
Pakistan's leaders have angered Islamic militants with their support of the US-led war on terror.
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