Pretoria, South Africa
Mail & Guardian 14 February 2007 06:30
Deported Pakistani Khalid Rashid's lawyer on Wednesday claimed he had new information suggesting the South African government is hiding information about the man's whereabouts.
Attorney Zehir Omar, acting for Rashid's family, this week filed an urgent application in the Pretoria High Court, requesting a full bench of the court, headed by Transvaal Judge President Bernard Ngoepe, to accept an affidavit containing the "new facts" before making a final decision in an application about the legality of Rashid's arrest and deportation.
Omar said Rashid's arrest and deportation is a disguised extradition and amounts to a crime against humanity.
The court was supposed to have delivered judgement on Wednesday, but will now hear further legal argument on Thursday afternoon.
In papers filed in the court this week, Rashid's lawyers said that in December last year they received a document compiled by Amnesty International, which suggests that Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula knew more about Rashid's whereabouts.
The document contains minutes of the November 2006 meeting of the United Nations's Committee against Torture, held in Geneva.
According to this document, Nqakula had responded to questions about Rashid's whereabouts by saying that "Mr Rashid had been visited in Pakistan, inter alia, by officials from the minister of safety and security. To his knowledge, Mr Rashid was still in Pakistan".
Rashid's lawyers thereafter demanded information on who had visited Rashid, when they did so and the reasons for the "continued concealment" of Rashid's whereabouts. They claim they are still waiting for an answer.
Immigrating officer Joe Swartland in court papers not only denied claims that Rashid had "disappeared", but said suggestions that the conduct of home affairs amounts to a crime against humanity is "defamatory".
"Officials of the government of Pakistan have provided more than ample proof of their receipt of Mr Rashid in Pakistan. Notwithstanding sufficient evidence having been provided in this regard, the applicant persists in his refusal to accept statements made by the officials of the government of Pakistan," he said.
He said the so-called minutes that Omar now tried to place before the court amount to nothing more than hearsay and were therefore denied. -- Sapa
No comments:
Post a Comment