ISLAMABAD, 22 August 2007 — A German national of Pakistani origin was freed by the Supreme Court yesterday, sources said.
Aleem Nasir was set free two months after he was arrested by an intelligence agency on unspecified charges, his lawyer said.
Nasir, a gem trader, was detained at Lahore Airport just before catching a flight back to Germany on June 18.
Two others were produced in the top court after the court ordered the head of Federal Investigation Agency either to bring them or be prepared to go to jail. Hundreds of people have gone missing in Pakistan in recent years, according to rights groups.
They are believed to have been held by intelligence agencies, either on suspicion of having links to Al-Qaeda, militant groups, or separatist movements from the southwest province of Balochistan.
The Supreme Court began hearing cases of missing persons last year, following complaints filed by relatives, and has made the government accountable for the disappearances.
The authorities have accounted for the whereabouts of 125 people out of 287 listed missing by relatives and rights groups, Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said.
A five-member bench, headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, ordered Nasir’s release.
President Pervez Musharraf spent four months trying to oust Chaudhry, but the Supreme Court reinstated the judge on July 20, in a historic ruling that asserted the independence of the judiciary and encouraged opposition parties and rights activists to take cases to the court.
After his release yesterday, Nasir said he was interrogated by American and British officials, as well as by Pakistani investigators.
“They were trying always to satisfy themselves, if I was going to attack America, if I am going to attack the UK,” he said.
Nasir planned to return soon to Germany, where he has lived for the last 20 years.
The intelligence agencies also produced in court two others, Imran Munir and Abdul Basit. Munir has been held since July last year on charges of spying for India.
The government’s top lawyer told the court that Munir’s earlier conviction by a military court on espionage charges had been set-aside on his intervention, and a retrial has been ordered.
The court ordered the intelligence agency to transfer Munir to police custody and allow him to be treated in hospital for a heart complaint.
