Islamabad:
A Pakistani court ordered an American official arrested in the killing of two Pakistanis to be held for another two weeks Friday, transferring him to a crowded city jail while authorities said they would prepare murder charges.
The official, Raymond A. Davis, 36, whose arrest has a cast a deep chill over relations between the United States and Pakistan, says he acted in self-defence when he shot the men in an attempted daylight robbery on January 27.
After the 30-minute closed door court hearing, the Lahore city police chief, Assam Tareen, said that Mr. Davis committed "cold-blooded" murder, a statement that appeared likely to further inflame the highly contentious case.
A lawyer for Mr. Davis, Hassam Qadir, asked Municipal Court Judge Aneeq Anwar Chaudry to adhere to the principles of diplomatic immunity and release the American. The State Department has repeatedly said that Mr. Davis is protected by diplomatic immunity under the Vienna Conventions and must be released immediately.
In response to the American demands for Mr. Davis' release, Pakistani officials say the American will be dealt with in the courts.
Although senior Pakistani officials agree in private that Mr. Davis, who carries a diplomatic passport, is protected by the Vienna Conventions, they appear unable or unwilling to enforce the protocol, according to senior American officials.
The civilian government of President Asif Ali Zardari is being pounded daily in the press about the case and the cause of the two victims has been taken up by right-wing religious parties.
The Pakistani military and security apparatus appears to be willing to allow the Davis case to dominate relationship with Washington for the moment, American and Pakistani officials said.
That way, Pakistan can wring concessions on the breadth of the presence of American security officials and contractors in Pakistan, according to the officials.
American officials say two armed men threatened Mr. Davis when he was driving alone on a busy Lahore road, and that he fired in self-defence.
A former American Army Special Forces soldier, Mr. Davis was assigned to Pakistan as a "technical" and "security" adviser, the American Embassy has said. His exact duties have not been explained, and the reason why he was driving alone with a Glock pistol, a pocket telescope and GPS equipment has fuelled speculation in the Pakistani press.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon E. Penetta, have warned the Pakistani government in telephone calls to Mr. Zardari and Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, the head of Pakistan's main spy agency, that the continued detention of Mr. Davis threatened the foundations of the strategic relationship between the two countries.
As the American government argued for Mr. Davis' release, photos and video from the official's camera and his cell phone were shown on two Pakistani television channels in what appeared to be deliberate leaks by the Pakistani security forces.
Several images showed one of Mr. Davis' assailants, Faizan Haider, lying on the road after he had been shot, a pistol in his hand.
Other photos showed the road near Lahore that leads to the border with India, old military bunkers along the road, and office buildings in the city.
The video taken shortly after Mr. Davis was detained included his voice asking the police the whereabouts of his passport. In the video, he is heard saying he worked as a consultant at the United States consulate in Lahore.
Mr. Davis, who arrived at the court in an armored van with tight security, was kept away from the press.
While in detention, the American will be segregated from the rest of the prisoners but would not be allowed access to the Internet or a cell phone, a senior government official said. Mr. Davis wore a gray suit and tie in court on Friday, in contrast to the checked shirt and jeans he was wearing when he was arrested, according to a lawyer who attended the session.
"By the book," was how the official described the treatment of Mr. Davis in the jail that housed former President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and in the early 1990s, Mr. Zardari, the current president who was held on corruption charges he has contended were politically motivated and never proven.