Expats to challenge conviction of 10 Pakistanis by Spain

ISLAMABAD: Pakistanis living in different countries of European Union (EU) have decided to file an application before the Spanish Supreme Court against the conviction of 10 individuals on charges of terrorism and their deportation to Pakistan.
“Ten innocent Pakistanis have been convicted in Spain under terrorism charges and now deported to Pakistan. We are going to file an application before the Spanish Supreme Court to reopen their cases. I have collected evidence to prove their innocence before court of law,” a legal consultant from the United Kingdom (UK) Jan Khan told The News here on Friday.
Khan had come all the way from London to Islamabad to muster support from Pakistan’s Foreign Office and the Ministry of Interior to raise voice in favour of deported Pakistanis.
“I am requesting Interior Minister Ch Nisar Khan to listen to my point of view on this subject as he had taken a principled stand on it,” Jan Khan said.
With support of community members, he said, they have appointed Mr Antonio Arenas, lawyer’s legal firm in London (UK), for representation in filing application for suspension of prison sentence of Maroof Ahmed Mirza and reopening the case for justice in the Supreme Court of Spain.
This will not only safeguard Pakistanis human rights overseas, but will ease the sufferings in foreseeable future, and will be a great contribution for crime prevention and public protection national and on transnational basis.
The image of Pakistan, he said, has been tarnished with false terrorism charges and the deportation treaty should not be reinstated until the complete verification of others and especially Maroof Ahmed Mirza a Pakistani citizen convicted on false terrorism charges, presently imprisoned in Martorell jail, Barcelona, Spain.
He claimed that forwarding as evidence in support of the suspension of treaty of Pakistan with Western countries, the Pakistanis named were deported in 2014 are Abdul Hafeez Ahmed, Khalid,

Mahmood Imran Cheema, Mohammad Shoaib, Mohammad Tariq, Qadeer Malik, Roshan Jamal Khan, Shahid Iqbal and Aqeel Ur Rehman Abbasi.
“All of them were falsely convicted of being extremist Islamic terrorists, possessing explosive material and hatching a plot to bomb the Barcelona subway system in January 2008 is now believed to be wrong and to reopen their cases,” he said while referring to their upcoming application before Spanish Supreme Court.
He argued that mostly the deportation was identified as human rights violations as during the entire course of detention, criminal trial and appeal process, the defendant’s case was not properly prepared, lack of appropriate legal assistance, inconclusive evidence, inadequate investigation methodology adopted into the charges of criminal nature are amply suggestive of reviewing the case of such people in its proper perspective.
He said the Catalunya Parliament in Barcelona contacted the government of Spain for Pakistani citizens and it is an urgent appeal for the Government of Pakistan to exercise its influence now without any delay to raise this matter directly with the Spanish government and EU Ambassador Jean-Francois Cautain.