Crying foul: Expats deported from Spain seek govt help

Nine men were convicted for conspiracy to bomb subway in Barcelona.

ISLAMABAD:

Seven Pakistani men convicted in Spain on terrorism charges, on Thursday, urged the government to force the Spanish authorities to reopen their cases, claiming they were falsely implicated.

The Pakistanis, who were released in January after completing their prison terms ranging from six to eight years, asked the government to formally request the Spanish government to reopen their cases because they claimed that their trial was based on mala fide intentions and they were defamed.

Accompanied by their UK-based counsel Jan Khan, the men, while addressing a press conference, informed the media that a Spanish court had falsely convicted 10 men including a Spanish and an Indian national of being Islamic terrorists in 2008. The main accusation against them centred on a conspiracy to plant bombs in the subway system in Barcelona.

Their counsel said that seven Pakistani men were released from jail and deported from Spain. Qadeer Malik, Shahid Iqbal, Abdul Hafeez Ahmed, Muhammad Tariq, Imran Cheema, Khalid Mahmood and Muhammad Sohaib are back home. Two others Aqeelur Rehman Abbasi and Maroof Ahmed Mirza will be released in June this year. Khan said they had all gone to Spain for a prosperous future and they were arrested because they were bearded Muslims.

During a press conference, they claimed that they were tortured first when they were arrested and later during imprisonment in various jails. “It is the Pakistani government’s obligation to raise this issue before the Spanish authorities,’’ said Jan who took up their case in 2013.

Mazhar Iqbal, a Spanish national of Pakistani origin, who was arrested along with the other men, but released after two days claimed that the Spainish secret service had offered him 0.2 million euros and asked him to give statements against the other men but he refused.

Sohaib, who belongs to Gujranwala, was convicted for six years. He claimed that he was picked up by the Spanish authorities along with the others and was tortured. “I went to Spain for a better future and my only fault was that I was a Muslim with a long beard,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 28^th, 2014.