Pakistani agencies told to produce missing German national (Roundup)

Aug 20, 2007, 14:35 GMT

Islamabad - Pakistan's Supreme Court on Monday ordered senior intelligence service officers to produce a German national and two other illegally-detained men or face severe consequences.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry directed a representative of the top military spy organization, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), to produce on Tuesday Aleem Nasir, a German national of Pakistani origin.

'If the man is not produced the ISI chief will be summoned in the court,' Chaudhry said after an intelligence official told the court that Nasir was suspected of having links to al-Qaeda and pro-Taliban militants in the restive tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

He also ordered the head of the civilian Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Tariq Pervez, to produce another man. Abdul Basit has been missing since 2004 when he was arrested on suspicion of plotting to kill President Pervez Musharraf.

'If you fail to locate him, you will be sent to prison,' said the judge, who has made a number of rulings against state authorities since he was appointed by Musharraf in 2005.

Chaudhry initially gave the spy chief one hour to comply with the order but extended the deadline to Tuesday. However, Pervez told the court that the FIA had handed the man to military intelligence days after he was detained.

Human rights activists claim hundreds of people have been picked up by state agencies, primarily under the pretext of fighting terrorism. Many have been held for years without being sentenced.

The Supreme Court took up the case of the missing persons last year after affected families and rights organizations held protest rallies.

The chief justice also ordered the military to locate and present a missing Malaysian national of Pakistani origin, Imran Munir.

The ISI official told Chaudhry that a military court had sentenced Munir to eight years imprisonment for espionage. But the missing man's lawyers claim he was jailed because of an affair he had with a female relative of a military officer.