Rashid+hunt+goes+to+the+world+court,+Gordin,+Naran,+Sindy

Sunday Independent, Johannesburg, June 11, 2006 //Edition 1//
=Rashid hunt goes to the world court=


 * Jeremy Gordin and Juggie Naran**

The search for Khalid Rashid, who was whisked out of the country by South African and Pakistani officials on November 6, is about to go global, with an application to the international criminal court in The Hague to compel the authorities in either country to produce him.

The advocate leading the search for Rashid, Zehir Omar, is preparing the papers. He said yesterday: "We are going to give notice to the prosecutor of the international criminal court before or on Tuesday of our intention to prosecute the relevant officials."

Omar said he would ask the international court to direct the ministers of intelligence, safety and security, home affairs and justice in South Africa, their subordinates, as well as their counterparts in Britain and Pakistan, to produce Rashid in the foyer of the Pretoria high court by August 1.

He would also ask the international court to order the incarceration of all the officials if they did not do so, until such time that Rashid was produced dead or alive.

Omar's draft papers, prepared for the international court, argue that the legal hunt for him in South Africa has hit a dead end, and that by making Rashid the victim of an "extraordinary rendition" by secretly handing him to foreign authorities without abiding by South African extradition law - which Omar contends is what happened - Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, the minister of home affairs, and others violated the section of the Rome Statute (article 7 [1]) that prohibits the enforced disappearance of people - a crime against humanity.


 * Meanwhile, Lenasia-based radio station Channel Islam reported on Friday night that it had established, after a special investigation, that a Gulfstream II jet (registration A6-PHY) left Mombasa, Kenya, at 11am on Saturday November 5 2005. At 14:52 it landed at Lanseria Airport, where the passengers and crew cleared customs and entered the country.

The jet refuelled and was parked overnight on the tarmac. At 06:42 the next morning it departed for Waterkloof Air Base, where Rashid was waiting with Joseph Swartland, a senior immigration official at the home affairs office in Pretoria. Swartland had earlier picked Rashid up at the Cullinan police cells where he had been held and interrogated since his arrest in Estcourt on October 31.

It has also been disclosed that Execujet, an international handling company based at Lanseria, checked at least six of the people from the Gulfstream into the Palazzo Hotel at Montecasino in Fourways. They stayed for one night and paid their bill with cash. They then flew to the Waterkloof base the next morning, November 6, to collect Rashid.

In papers before the Pretoria high court on Tuesday, the minister of home affairs said there were five crew members and four passengers on the plane that took off from Waterkloof. However, the flight plan mentions only a pilot and one crew member named, respectively, Tsaregorodsev and Bushev. It is not known who the other crew members and passengers were. The number of the plane corresponds to one owned by AVE, a company legally domiciled in the central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan. Its main base of operations is Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. AVE is the latest incarnation of Phoenix Aviation, a company that has been linked to alleged Russian weapons dealer Victor Bout.


 * It is understood that Pakistani intelligence, the ISI, compiled a 17-page report on Rashid that was forwarded to the South African secret service late last year. The report said Rashid was not involved in terror in Britain and had never been to the United States. He had been to South Africa several times. The South African government's communication service issued a statement this week saying Rashid was an illegal foreigner and was arrested and deported to Pakistan on November 6. It said Rashid indicated his willingness to be deported to Pakistan.

It said: "From the perspective of the South African government… There were … grounds to deport him as he was in fact an illegal foreigner. Nevertheless, extra care had to be taken with regard to the deportation and special transport arrangements were agreed upon between the department of home affairs and our security agencies."


 * From: http://www.sundayindependent.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3286518**

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