A Pakistani man accused of aiding al-Qaeda and imprisoned in his home country for three years, has been released, according to his lawyer, and US officials made clear their dismay at the news on Monday.
Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, 28, was released without charge, and turned up at his home in Karachi on Monday morning, his lawyer Babar Awan said. Khan had been included in a group of missing people, who were being held without charge in Pakistan and whose cases came before the Supreme Court on Monday.
Pakistan's deputy attorney general, Naheeda Mehboob Ilahi, was asked about Khan's whereabouts by the court and said he had already been released. Awan said his office later reached members of Khan's family who confirmed he had arrived home. He said he had not yet spoken to his client.
files
Khan was arrested at Lahore International Airport in July 2004 during a joint Pakistani-British operation. Soon after his arrest, Pakistani and US authorities said they had found files on his computer that led to the raising of the terrorism alert level in the US.
The authorities said the files included surveillance information on the World Bank and IMF in Washington, the Citigroup Tower and New York Stock Exchange in Manhattan and the Prudential Building in Newark, New Jersey.
The US officials declined to speak for the record about the release of Khan, apparently out of reluctance to criticize Pakistan, which has generally worked closely with the US in counterterrorism efforts.
"He most definitely had terrorist links," a US intelligence official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the US case against Khan was classified.
Yet it seems that the manner in which Pakistani officials handled his detention without charge for three years led to his release.
never charged
"He was never charged. Nobody knows under whose custody he was during all this time," Awan said in a telephone interview from Lahore on Tuesday. "He was kept in illegal confinement. He was never produced before any court and there was no indictment."
The Supreme Court, under the leadership of Chief Justice Mohammed Iftikhar Chaudhry, has taken the law enforcement ministries and intelligence agencies to task over the disappearance of hundreds of people since 2001. Many have been held without charge and often their families have no information of their whereabouts.
Chaudhry was suspended in March by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf but successfully fought to be resinstated and has returned to pursuing the cases of the disappeared among others since resuming his job on July 20.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel
RSS