December 14, 2006 ☼ Foreign Affairs
This is an archived blog post from The Acorn.
Remember Rashid Rauf? It was his ‘arrest’ by Pakistani authorities that triggered off the dramatic events in August 2006 and the foiling of a terrorist plot to blow up several transatlantic airliners simultaneously.
He was not ‘handed over’ to US or British authorities like the ‘over 500 al-Qaeda operatives’ that Pakistani officials invoke while touting their FATWATcredentials. He was charged in Pakistani courts, like Omar Saeed Sheikh, suggesting that Rauf was a cat that the Pakistanis could not allow out of the bag. Well, an anti-terrorism court has just dismissed the charges of terrorism against him.
“The prosecution said that my client was in possession of 29 bottles of hydrogen peroxide that was meant for use in explosives and terrorist attacks on airlines,†the lawyer said. “I refuted their contention. This chemical is also used to heal wounds.â€
Rauf still faces charges of impersonation, carrying a fake identity card, fake documents and using those documents, Mr Habib said. “These are minor charges and we hope to see him free,†he said.[Dawn]Like Omar Saeed, Rauf will now be under trial for a long time, under the care and protection of the Pakistani authorities. B Raman tracks the curious case of Rashid Rauf.
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