More Pakistanis claim illegal abduction in Greece

05 Apr, 2006

Three more Pakistanis stepped forward on Tuesday with claims they were illegally abducted and interrogated in Greece after last year's London bombings, bringing the total to 15, their lawyer said.
The lawyer, Frangiskos Ragoussis, said the men - Khalid Irfan, Mohammad Saeed and Ijaz Ahmad Keyzani - were abducted and interrogated in July 2005 by armed plainclothes men who presented themselves as Greek police officers.
Irfan claimed at a news conference here that he was struck on the head and interrogated on possible links to al Qaeda and about acquaintances in London and Dubai. Greek judicial authorities have been investigating the alleged case since December.
In addition to the 15 Pakistanis who have testified so far about alleged abduction and interrogation, another 16 claim to have suffered maltreatment, Ragoussis said.
Two of them, Gul Nawaz and Nazir Ahmad, said they had received 1,300 euros (1,600 dollars) in the presence of Pakistan's ambassador to Athens to retract their testimony, and were later given another 5,000 euros by three Pakistanis "close to the embassy", who also threatened them.
The two men made the same claims in an interview with Greek daily Ethnos on Sunday.
Another plaintiff, Radza Farakat, on Tuesday claimed that an English-speaking man was among the July 2005 interrogators.

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