Slaying suspect flees U.S. following medical treatment

ATLANTA - A Pakistani immigrant freed from jail to seek treatment for a rare blood disorder has fled the United States again rather than face trial. <br> <br> Mahboob Pasha, 35, had promised to report for trial in Fulton County if allowed to go to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., for a bone marrow transplant needed to treat a fatal disease. <br> <br> ``We always stated we would come back and face the music, that was the idea,&#39;&#39; said attorney Tom West, who represents Pasha. ``But he was perfectly free to go back to Pakistan.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Pasha was charged in a 1996 convenience store shooting that killed Anthony Harris of Decatur. Pasha said he fired after Harris tried to steal two six-packs of beer from the store where Pasha worked. <br> <br> After being charged with murder, Pasha fled the U.S. but he was arrested Feb. 2001 in New York, where he had returned from Pakistan. <br> <br> Last year, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard deferred the charge against Pasha, who was then freed from jail for medical treatment. <br> <br> ``We all agreed that morally it was the right thing to do,&#39;&#39; Howard said. <br> <br> The district attorney&#39;s office learned Pasha had disappeared three months ago after a prosecutor discovered Pasha had been discharged from the NIH program. <br> <br> Later NIH got a letter from a Pakistani doctor asking for Pasha&#39;s medical records so he could continue treatment. <br> <br> Howard said his office has asked Superior Court Judge Gino Brogdon to schedule Pasha for trial, so a warrant can be issued for his arrest. <br> <br> West said there was a chance his client would return for trial if a date is set. <br> <br> ``I guess once he got well and feeling good, he took the opportunity to go back home,&#39;&#39; West said.