RAWALPINDI: Matthew Craig Barrett, an American citizen deported to the US in 2011 and arrested earlier this month after re-entering Pakistan, was released from the Adiala prison on Friday for deportation.
Barrett was sent to prison on Aug 13 under the Foreigners Act on 14-day judicial remand. And on Thursday a special court of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) allowed the authorities to deport him.
After receiving the court’s orders on Friday, the prison’s officials handed Barrett over to the FIA officials. He was shifted to Islamabad amid tight security.
According to sources, he will be deported to his country sometime on Saturday (today).
Barrett was arrested on Aug 6 by personnel of law enforcement agencies at a guesthouse in Islamabad, hours after returning to Pakistan despite being deported to the US in 2011.
He had been deported after being found in the vicinity of a sensitive installation in the Fateh Jang area. During his earlier stay in the country he married a Pakistani woman. The couple have two children.
In June Barrett obtained a Pakistani visa from the Pakistan consulate in Houston, Texas, and the immigration counter at Benazir Bhutto International Airport allowed him to enter the country.
Taking notice of negligence on the part of immigration officials, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan ordered an inquiry into how he managed to re-enter the country and suspended sub-inspector Raja Asif Raza and constable Ehteshamul Haq of the FIA.
Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2016
