ISLAMABAD, March 2: A foreigner wanted in the UAE and Saudi Arabia for the last four years, was arrested on Saturday in the capital, while transporting liquor, police officials said.
The nationality of the foreigner is yet to be established, however, Beirut is mentioned as his birthplace in the Red Warrant. The Red Warrant was issued by the Interpol (International Police) in 2008.
Earlier he had been arrested in 2008, but somehow managed to secure release from the custody of FIA.
The foreigner was declared wanted in capital’s Kohsar, Ramna and Shalimar police stations in separate fraud cases.
The police said that he used to defraud people on the pretext of arranging Hajj and Umrah visas in Pakistan.
Besides, he used to sell people’s cars off by way of deception — claiming that the cars were being using in rent-a-car business, the police added.
He was also wanted by the UAE police in connection with cases involving bank fraud and bogus transactions.
He was spotted and arrested by Shalimar police at a picket in F-11/4, here on Saturday. Officials deployed at the post, on a tip-off, intercepted a car bearing the registration plate of United Nations.
During the search of the vehicle, the team recovered 80 bottles of wine from the car which led to the arrest of the foreigner.
However the nationality of the foreigner remains a bit of a mystery.
Controversy was first triggered during his arrest in 2008 at the Islamabad Airport, done at the initiative of the Interpol that had issued a Red Warrant. On the Red Warrant his birthplace was mentioned as Beirut, Lebanon.
However, after the arrest, the local representative of Interpol – Officer in-charge Ahmed Ali Afghani — wrote to first secretary of UAE embassy, on September 19, 2008, informing him of the development.
The UAE embassy was asked for an update as he was being kept in provisional custody in Pakistan and could not be kept for long.
However, what was UAE embassy’s response and how the accused managed to wiggle his way out of FIA custody remains unknown, although as the story develops more facts will emerge in the coming days, said an official on condition of anonymity.
On other hand, an official revealed that in a letter on August 9, 2011, UAE government had requested the Pakistan Foreign Office to extradite the foreigner and had described him as a “Syrian National.”
In response the ministry of interior on June 15, 2012, asked for a clarification from the UAE, asking how a Syrian national could be extradited to the UAE.
The Shalimar police added that the foreigner was also wanted in Saudi Arabia, as he in disguise of a Saudi diplomat, had defrauded people.
According to the police, he impersonated being a Saudi diplomat and minted money from the people, offering them jobs.
Besides, he also used the registration plates of the Saudi Embassy and the United Nations, impersonating himself as a diplomat in Pakistan, the police added.
