February 10, 2007	Saturday	Muharram 21, 1428

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RAWALPINDI, Feb 9: A British national suspected to be a key figure in last August’s failed plot to bomb transatlantic flights leaving London was not produced in an anti-terrorism court when the ATC took up the case again on Friday.

Senior public prosecutor told the Anti-Terrorism Court-II of Special Judge Malik Safdar Hussain that since Rashid Rauf, the alleged British terrorist of Pakistani origin, was being detained under preventive laws he could be produced in higher courts only.

His production in the anti-terrorism court also involved security risks, the prosecutor added.

Rauf’s counsel Hashmat Habib contested the prosecutor’s statements, saying his client had not been detained under any special terror law but had been charged under substantive law and was on judicial remand.

Last December, Judge Malik Safdar Hussain had absolved Rauf of the charge of terrorism as the prosecutor had not framed the same against him.

Advocate Hashmat Habib also recalled that police failed to present his client in the court on January 26 defying the orders of a judicial magistrate. “I have moved a contempt of court application against the police,” he said.

The anti-terrorism court had ordered police to produce Rashid Rauf on February 13 to define his legal position whether he was under detention or charged under substantive law. The Lahore High Court Rawalpindi Bench had earlier suspended the operations of ATC in this case when the court was approached by the Punjab government.

The LHC bench had referred the case to the district and sessions judge who forwarded it to a magistrate for hearing the charges of impersonation, carrying fake identity card and fake documents against Rashid Rauf.