A+year+later,+Rashid+nowhere+to+be+seen,+Juggie+Naran,+Tribune

Tribune, October 29 2006 at 05:49PM
=A year later and Rashid is nowhere to be seen=


 * By Juggie Naran**

On Tuesday, it will be exactly a year since Rashid Khalid was abducted in Estcourt, never to be seen again.

It was an event that had all the hallmarks of a spy thriller.

On October 31, members of the town's small Muslim community, who were observing Ramadan, were preparing to have supper after breaking their daily fast.

It was about 10pm and they had just returned from their evening prayers at the mosque.

Suddenly the silence of the night was broken. Several luxury vehicles screeched to a halt in front of a home in Canna Avenue, Forderville. About 10 heavily armed men jumped out of the cars, which had false number plates.

They kicked open the door of an outbuilding and barged in. Inside two men screamed as the raiders turned the place upside down.

A small crowd gathered outside as the owner, Mohammed Bayat, plucked up the courage to ask what was happening. The men, some with a British accent, pointed a rifle at him. He was told if he knew what was good for him, he would go back into his house.

A police van stopped to make inquiries. They, too, were told by the mystery men to move on.

Two hooded men were then dragged out of the building and pushed into two vehicles and driven away.

Pakistani national Khalid Mehmood Rashid and his room-mate, Moulana Mohammed Ebrahim Jeebhai, 29, were driven to an unknown destination.

After 15 days Jeebhai was found at the Lindela detention centre, from where he was about to be deported. He had been detained at the Cullinan Police Station near Pretoria.

Jeebhai managed to get hold of a cellphone, and SMSed his brother, Ismail Ebrahim Jeebhai. The brother hired attorney Zehir Omar, who took the matter to the Pretoria High Court and secured Jeebhai's release on November 15.

The court also ordered the minister of home affairs to disclose the whereabouts of Rashid.

The long and still continuing hunt for the Pakistani had started.

It was only at the end of January that the Department of Home Affairs revealed that Rashid had been deported to Pakistan on November 6.

The department claimed the two men had been arrested because they had been in the country illegally. It said there was no other information on Rashid's whereabouts.

The Muslim community of Estcourt was outraged. Members say Rashid may have been the victim of an "extraordinary rendition" following allegations he was a member of the Taliban or Al-Qaeda.

A rendition is the illegal transfer of people from one country to another in ways that bypass judicial and administrative scrutiny.

The aim of rendition in the "war on terror" is usually to facilitate the interrogation of suspects outside the reach of the law.

The community fears Rashid is in a United States detention camp. Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, the CIA has sent suspects to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and countries such as Egypt and Jordan.

In May events took a bizarre turn at another court attempt to force the department of home affairs to give more information on Rashid's deportation.

A fast food vendor said he had information of a "conspiracy by the state to help people to be removed from the country and seized by international communities".

Yaseen Suliman arrived at the Pretoria High Court and requested through his lawyer to be admitted as an amicus curiae (friend of the court), saying he had come into possession of a home affairs file.

He told Judge Justice Poswa, who was due to deliver judgment as to whether the department should be compelled to disclose detailed information about Rashid's whereabouts, that the contents of the file were of such a nature that the matter "should be investigated by the International Criminal Court in the Hague".

Suliman said he had delivered food one evening to legal counsel. When they had finished he had packed the leftover containers in a box. When he opened the box the following morning he had discovered the Home Affairs file inside, which was later dubbed the "samoosa file".

He said he was shocked by its contents, pertaining to Rashid's apparent whereabouts, and decided the matter should be brought to the attention of the judge.

But counsel for Home Affairs said the file had been "stolen" from the court. The judge was told it contained privileged and sensitive information.

The document was handed back to Home Affairs and the judge ruled its contents could not be published.

Then there was another dramatic development.

The South African Air Force in May confirmed Rashid had been taken from Air Force Base Waterkloof in Tshwane.

The plane, chartered by the South African Police Service, landed and took off from Waterkloof in the early hours of November 6 last year.

No flight plan had been filed and the aircraft's registration had not been provided, said SAAF spokesman Capt Ronald Maseko.

An air force officer on duty when Rashid was taken out of the country said home affairs officials, together with police, had arrived at the base from Cullinan Police Station with a handcuffed man, whom they placed on the aircraft.

"I was told that he was in the country illegally and was wanted for crimes overseas," he said.

The officer said several people were on board the plane, which was also carrying South African police members and other "official-looking people".

Civil Aviation Authority spokesperson Moses Seate said that according to international regulations, a flight plan had to be filed and "had to contain information on the number of passengers on board, the type of aircraft, its registration number as well as the name of the pilot, co-pilot and crew".

Except for Rashid, the identity of the other passengers and the aircraft's destination are unknown.

The legal battle to find him continues.


 * From: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20061029104053108C430717**

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