Prisoner extradition inquiry: Diplomats refuse to cooperate with FIA

Officials in Thailand accused of repatriating convicts

ISLAMABAD:

Senior diplomats accused of sending convicted prisoners from Bangkok to Pakistan have refused to meet a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) team despite their weeks-long attempt.

“Diplomats [in Pakistan’s Embassy in Bangkok] refused to cooperate with the FIA team. Three officials are accused of sending prisoners from Thailand to Pakistan illegally,” FIA’s Director General Akbar Khan Hoti confirmed to The Express Tribune. “We’ve summoned them again. They should cooperate with us,” he added.

The interior ministry locked horns with the ministry of foreign affairs after the latter refused to cooperate with the FIA over the issue of prisoners illegally sent to Pakistan without taking consent of the high-ups, officials said.



A number of high-profile Pakistani prisoners got reportedly extradited illegally from Thailand to Pakistan with the help of diplomats, federal as well as provincial authorities. The FIA team summoned the deputy high commissioner, consular and accountant in Pakistan’s Embassy in Thailand last month. They were summoned soon after Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar ordered an inquiry into the case for stopping enforcement on the agreements with other countries for exchange of convicted criminals.

The unusual decision has halted the transfer of around 3,000 convicted prisoners from 30 countries, interior ministry officials claimed. The interior minister wanted results in such cases, a member of investigation team said. “We are in a fix as no one is listening to us in the foreign affairs ministry,” he told The Express Tribune on condition of anonymity.

Preliminary findings suggested that there are several high-profile officials who helped execute the extradition process, he added.  “Though it’s an international issue as it involves four countries, we will go for it so that treaties could be put into effect, he maintained. Once results are achieved from all such investigations, Islamabad will be resuming its prisoner-swap treaties with all the countries,” he added.

Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said: “No one from MOFA is involved in any wrongdoing. We are clear about that. I will not comment about the rest.” When asked about the involvement of diplomats, she said: “I have said what I had to say.”

Many prisoners who were involved in drugs, murders, looting and other heinous crimes were being illegally brought from foreign countries and later set free in Pakistan, revealed Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali last month.

Even the government of Britain, he said, put on hold one of its prisoners’ exchange treaties but later resumed only after Islamabad assured London of its commitment. About Burmese prisoner, he observed that the interior ministry was shocked how a criminal, who was a Burmese citizen, was brought to Pakistan through illegal and fake Pakistani national identity card and illegal and fake passport and later released.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 2^nd, 2015.