SA men in Pakistan face battle
2004-07-30 16:54
Pretoria - While the fate of two South Africans being held for suspected terrorist activities in Pakistan remained unclear on Friday, an independent analyst described their situation as bleak.
If tried in Pakistan, the death penalty was mandatory for terrorism, and the definition of the crime very broad, said SA Institute of International Affairs war and organised crime researcher Gail Wannenburg.
The men are said to be Feroze Ganchi, a doctor from Fordsburg, Johannesburg, and 20-year-old student Zubair Ismael from Laudium in Pretoria.
Should they be handed over to the United States, the men were likely to spend a long time awaiting trial in a detention facility like Guantanamo Bay - the US' military prison in Cuba.
They would probably be considered illegal combatants under American law, meaning that minimum international standards of detention would not apply to them, she said.
Terrorism was a capital crime in some US states.
"Their situation would appear to be quite bleak, particularly if they are deported to the US," Wannenburg said. "I would be quite worried if I were in their shoes."
The South African government could on Friday give no update on the men's position.
On Thursday, deputy foreign minister Aziz Pahad met Pakistani High Commissioner Akbar Zeb in Pretoria to request access to the men.
He also asked for details of the arrests "to enable the South African government to determine the course of action to be followed".
Pair went missing after hike
The high commissioner committed his government to assisting South Africa and enabling consular visits to the men.
Asked on Friday whether arrangements for a visit were underway, a departmental spokesperson said: "There is no further information. The status is as yesterday".
The pair went missing 11 days ago while they were supposed to be hiking in the mountains of eastern Pakistan.
The men were among about a dozen detained after a 12-hour shootout with security forces at a house in Gujrat, south-east of Islamabad, on Sunday.
According to foreign news agencies, a Tanzanian al-Qaeda suspect wanted by the US for the 1998 bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, was among those arrested.
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani is reportedly on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's list of 22 most wanted terrorists, with a $25m reward on his head.
If any link was established between Ghailani and the South Africans, they were likely to be deported to the US, Wannenburg said. But the burden of proof would be very low, she said, as the US and Pakistan "have both not been very open about the evidence they rely on in such cases".
Regarding the South African government's involvement, she said a precedent had been set by its treatment of 70 citizens being held in Zimbabwe on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea.
The government was not obliged to intervene in any prosecution and was limited to providing consular services and trying to ensure at a diplomatic level that citizens detained abroad received a free and fair trial.
- SAPA