It was just a month ago that a Pakistan court convicted 10 Taliban militants for the attempted killing of schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai and sentenced them to 25 years in prison. On Friday, eight were released after winning an appeal, NBC reported Friday.

The eight men were "freed due to lack of proper proof and evidence against them," Salim Marwat, a police chief in Pakistan's Swat Valley, told NBC News.

At the end of April, Judge Mohammad Amin Kundi sentenced the Taliban militants to 25 years in prison after finding them guilty of planning and carrying out the attack on the teenage activist. According to prosecutor Syed Naeem Khan, all 10 "confessed to their roles in the shooting before the judge."

Malala — now a Nobel Peace laureate — was critically wounded when she was shot in the head while trying to board a school bus in 2012. Two of her friends were also wounded in the attack, which was claimed by the Pakistani Taliban.