An Iraqi man has reportedly been illegally detained in Pakistan’s central prison, Peshawar, for the last two years, reported the Pakistani daily, the Dawn, on Monday.
Alaa Akram Shaka, who was arrested more than three years ago, told the paper that though he completed his jail term in 1999, he had neither been released nor deported.
“I have no money to hire a lawyer," he told Dawn at the prison.
Shaka said that those who had served sentences for terrorism, murder, drug trafficking had been released, but he was not, though he was not a criminal.
He added: "Where is justice and fair play in this country?"
Shaka said that he had left Iraq because there was no future for him there.
He said he had come to Pakistan and asked the United Nations to send him to any country in Europe or anywhere else.
He said he had no passport, and was therefore was arrested in June 1998 for staying in Pakistan illegally. He was then jailed.
Later, a local court had sentenced him to three years' imprisonment under the Foreigners Act, he added.
An official of the prison told the paper that they had been waiting for orders from the home department regarding the Iraqi national.
The official added that they did not know whether the Iraqi would be deported or freed – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
