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Babar’s re-arrest
‘political,’ says family member
The re-arrest of a British Muslim following a US
request for his extradition was politically motivated, according to
one of his sisters.
Babar Ahmad, 30, was appearing at Bow Street Magistrates Court
Friday after being arrested near his home in Tooting, south London,
on Thursday evening. He was first arrested by anti-terrorist police
8 months ago but was released six days later without charge.
“It is just ridiculous. The police searched everything in December
last year,” his sister told The Muslim News in an exclusive
interview. “They took away his computers, private mail, etc, half of
which have not even been returned. They did not find anything then.
So how can they say that he used his emails and websites for
terrorist activities when they couldn’t find this information when
they searched his computers?” she said.
The extradition warrant claims that Babar, who is of Pakistani
descent, solicited money for "acts of terrorism in Chechnya and
Afghanistan" between 1998 and 2003, by working through US-based and
operated websites and through email to people there.
“There is no proof of his involvement in terrorism. It is all lies.
Don’t they understand they are destroying other people’s lives just
to please the USA?” said his distraught sister, who has two young
children under two. She said it was “all to do with politics and
propaganda – because they have to do something for the Americans
before the elections.”
After his first arrest, Babar alleged that he was physically and
mentally abused by police and has presented a case to the Police
Complaints Commission. He also claimed that police mocked his
religion, when he was forced to kneel in a prostrate position and
asked 'Where is your God now? Pray to Him! You’re in prayer now!'
His sister suggested that his re-arrest was also “very convenient”
for the police as her brother was going to be one of the speakers at
a conference on police brutality this Sunday. “It was his case upon
which The Stop Police Terror was founded,” she told The Muslim News,
declaring that it was a “war on Islam.”
Babar’s sister, who did not want to publicise her name, said she was
“shocked” when the police arrived at her home after arresting her
brother. She said that she had to leave the house and was not told
by police until midnight that the search was completed. In
particular, she was critical of one Asian officer, who refused to
allow her to inform her mother, who suffers from high blood pressure
and was teaching children at the time. “I wanted to reassure her.
The police officer told me: ‘She is well enough to teach children so
she must be well enough to cope with this.’ I was shocked to hear
this from the officer. They are very insensitive to human feelings,”
she said.
During her interview, the sister also gave a heart-rendering account
about the devastating affect her brother’s re-arrest had on his wife
and on his sister-in-law, who already suffered a miscarriage from
the family’s first ordeal last December. She said her sister-in-law
was on the way to visit her with her two children at the time. “As
she approached our house, she saw police cars and she panicked and
didn’t know what to do. So she went to a nearby mosque. She was
there for about 4 hours. We went to collect her later,” she said.
Babar’s sister suggested that her brother’s re-arrest made her more
determined than ever to publicise the injustices her family has
suffered. “I hope as many people as possible will attend this
Sunday’s conference. We need everyone’s support. They must not get
away with breaches of human rights. We are going to carry on
campaigning,” she said.
Source: The Muslim News
(For background to December 2003, arrest and accusation of brutality
click
here)
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