Court Case Cited in Pakistani’s Release
The lawyer for an al-Qaida suspect says his release may be because of the Pakistan Supreme Court’s decision to review his detention without charges.
Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan had been held without charges since July 2004 when he was arrested in a joint Pakistani-British operation, the New York Times reports. He was suspected of acting as an al-Qaida courier and had files on his computer that led the United States to raise its terrorism alert level.
Khan’s lawyer, Babar Awan, told the New York Times that Khan’s case was the first of several hundred involving people held without charges to reach the Pakistan Supreme Court. He said Khan’s release may have been prompted by the decision to review the case and by a realization that there was not enough evidence against his client.
Pakistan Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, reinstated by the court after he was suspended by Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has been pursuing the cases of hundreds of people being held without charges.
