ISLAMABAD, 11 May 2006 — A Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) team, which left for Berlin on Tuesday, will examine the post-mortem report and other circumstances that could shed light on Aamir Cheema’s mysterious death in custody in Berlin.
It is for the first time that a European country has allowed a team of investigators from Pakistan to hold probe on its soil.
The two senior officials from the police and the FIA left for Germany on Tuesday.
“We have sent two senior officials to Germany to probe the death in jail of Cheema,” FIA chief Tariq Parvez told AFP on Tuesday.
German authorities have pledged to cooperate with the Pakistani investigators, Parvez said. The incident sparked resentment among religious parties, which demanded that Pakistan should lodge a strong protest with Germany. They also called on the people to boycott German products.
Cheema was arrested by German police on March 20 for participating in a protest rally against blasphemous cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).
Other reports said Cheema had been charged by German prosecutors after entering the Berlin-based offices of Die Welt newspaper on March 20 armed with a knife. Authorities said he wanted to kill the newspaper’s editor.
According to German police sources he had committed suicide.
Cheema’s family rejected the findings of the German police. His father Nazir Cheema has alleged his son was tortured to death.
Meanwhile, German Ambassador to Pakistan Dr. Gunter Mulack told journalists yesterday: “Cheema was a mental patient. He was not a balanced person. But still we will allow Pakistani investigators to carry out probe into his death.”
Cheema’s father rejected the ambassador’s claim saying his son never suffered from any mental ailment. Cheema’s body will be brought to Pakistan tomorrow.
