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| September 22, 2005 | Thursday | Sha'aban 17, 1426 |
French national acquitted in illegal stay case
PESHAWAR, Sept 21: A French national, who had converted to Islam and married a Pakistani girl, was acquitted by a court here on Tuesday in a case of illegal stay in Pakistan. Judicial magistrate Mohsin Ali Turk accepted an application filed by the French national, Mohammad Khalid, formerly named Christopher Jean.
The court made the decision in accordance with section 241-A of the Criminal Procedure Code which authorizes it to acquit a person before conclusion of the trial if there was no possibility of conviction.
Witnesses told Dawn that the jubilant couple hugged each other as soon as the court pronounced the verdict. The couple had contracted nikah at Rawalpindi on July 7, 2005.
Khalid, 35, was arrested from a local hotel on July 30. Since he did not possess a passport, an FIR was registered against him under section 14 of the Foreigners Act.
Khalid said he had come to Pakistan on a valid visa on Sept 16, 2004, and lost his passport while travelling from Islamabad’s Aabpara Market to Bari Imam. He said he had reported the matter to the Secretariat police station, Islamabad, on July 11.
Khalid’s lawyer told the court that the Secretariat police had not taken any action on his report on the grounds that the offence was non-cognizable. The counsel said the French embassy had also confirmed that Khalid had lost his passport.
The lawyer also produced before the court a letter issued by the embassy to Khalid, wherein it was stated that he would be delivered a permit the day he was freed so that he could return to France. The embassy also stated that a French visa would also be delivered the same day to his Pakistani wife, Sughra.
Ms Sughra, a 25-year-old student of a law college, told the court that she had met Khalid in Rawalpindi. She stated that initially her parents had resisted her marriage but later they agreed to accept Khalid as her husband.
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