Police ordered to produce Briton held in plane plot
ISLAMABAD, Jan 26: A court on Friday ordered police officials to produce a Briton who was held in connection with a plot to bomb transatlantic jets after jail chiefs failed to bring him to a legal hearing.
Rashid Rauf was seized in Pakistan in August, sparking a worldwide security alert and arrests in Britain, amid fears of a conspiracy to blow up passenger jets flying from London to the United States.
The 25-year-old was due to appear at a magistrate’s court in Rawalpindi, on Friday to face charges including impersonation, carrying a fake identity card and fake documents.
“A contempt case has been registered against jail authorities” after Rauf was not produced for the hearing, magistrate Ata Rabbani said.
The authorities have now been ordered to bring the Briton to court on Feb 9 when they will also answer the contempt of court charges, Rauf's lawyer Hashmat Habib said.
“The court has ordered that he should be produced and he was not produced.
It is a gross violation of the court order,” said Habib.
“My client is innocent.” In December an anti-terrorism court dropped terror charges against Rauf but its order was suspended when the provincial Punjab government appealed to a higher court.
A separate hearing on those charges was adjourned on Thursday. The terror charges said Rauf was in possession of 29 bottles of hydrogen peroxide, which were meant to be used to blow up the passenger jets.
He denies being linked to the alleged conspiracy. Officials say Rauf was detained under special terror laws which mean he can be held without charge until August on the grounds that he was a “key man” in the plot, with links to Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.—AFP
