Daniel Pearl case "detenu" dies

[struggle4progress]

Source: The Hindu

Nirupama Subramanian

ISLAMABAD: ~snip~

Saud Memon, a 44-year-old textiles businessman, owned the property where Daniel Pearl's body was discovered. According to his family, the FBI picked up Memon in 2003 when he was on a visit to South Africa.

The family believes he was detained in Guantanamo Bay for two years before being transferred back to a Pakistani intelligence agency.

The Government did not acknowledge that he was in their custody. Earlier this month, Mr. Memon was produced before a Supreme Court bench hearing several petitions from families of persons missing since 2001. ~snip~

Mr. Memon had to be carried to the court on a stretcher. Only a few days earlier, unidentified men had dumped him outside his Karachi home in bad shape. His family said he had lost his memory. The Government did not say anything in court about where he had been since he went missing in 2003. The judges observed that he was "a skeleton of a man who can neither walk nor hold his head" and ordered his hospitalisation. He weighed only 18 kg. He died on Friday in a Karachi hospital. Doctors said he died of meningitis and tuberculosis.Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter, was kidnapped during a visit to Karachi in 2002 and later killed.

Read more: http://www.hindu.com/2007/05/20/stories/2007052001621400.htm

[JohnLocke]

1. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Seems he was a financier for Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harkat-ul-Mujahideen

[bahrbearian]

2. And you are sure of this because it was proven in a court of Law

or are you using the wikipedia link.. I searched the link with his name and there was nothing there.

[JohnLocke]

3. Link here

Saud Memon in the Sindh province is reported to be one of the prominent financiers of the HuMA. The Sindh Government had declared him among their 10 most-wanted terrorists on June 29, 2002. Reportedly, it was on the land owned by Memon that the body of murdered US journalist Daniel Pearl was discovered. Till April 2003, according to the Daily Times, Memon was at large.

http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/pakistan/terroristoutfits/HuMA.htm

[bahrbearian]

4. Well that makes it OK to torture someone to death

He was "reportedly" one of the prominent financiers of HuMA, and one of his employees was present when they killed Pearle, thats more then enough prove that he is guilty , no need to get the courts involved.

[struggle4progress]

5. Somebody starved him until he weighed 40 pounds then dumped him.

The most natural guess is that he has been in the custody of Pakistani intelligence, which has a fairly brutal reputation. The exact role Memon may have played as a financier depends on whose version one believes: the US Treasury, for example, claimed Memon was a financier for Al Akhtar Trust, which Treasury claimed supported the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and several other groups. These claims, like the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen financier claim you repeat, seem to have originated from detainees in Pakistani custody. But since torture there is common, accusations and confessions by Pakistani detainees should perhaps be treated with some skepticism. And there may not really be much evidence: Memon himself was never charged with any crime.

Pakistani owner of shed where Daniel Pearl was slain dies
The Associated Press
Published: May 18, 2007

~snip~ "We don't know who had been holding him for the past more than four years, but my brother had nothing to do with al-Qaida or Daniel Pearl's murder," the brother told The Associated Press. Human rights groups have raised suspicions that Saud Memon and several others were held by a secretive Pakistani intelligence agency probing the January 2002 kidnapping and beheading of Pearl by al-Qaida. ~snip~

Investigators had said they wanted to question Memon to find out who had used the shed, but no police or government official ever acknowledged his arrest. His family say he disappeared in March 2003. He was never formally charged. ~snip~

Amina Masood — who has brought a case before the court challenging the "disappearances" of terror suspects allegedly detained by Pakistani intelligence agencies — told the reporters that Memon had allegedly been arrested by the FBI when he traveled to South Africa on a business trip. She claimed he was later handed over to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence. ~snip~

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/18/asia/AS-GEN-Pakistan-Pearl-Slaying.php

SC seeks traced persons affidavits
Iman Hasan

~snip~ According to Amna Janjua, it was confirmed by three other people released from ISI’s detention that Saud Memon was also with them in ISI custody. ~snip~

Saud Memon’s brother pleaded before the court that Saud Memon’s name should be removed from the ‘Red Book’ compiled by the Interior Ministry, which contains the names the people wanted by the government. The head money set by the government for Saud Memon is Rs 30 lakh.

“Saud Memon should not be arrested without approval of this court,” ordered Justice Javed Iqbal. ~snip~

http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/may-2007/5/index3.php

AI Index: ASA 33/036/2006
29 September 2006
Pakistan
Human rights ignored in the "war on terror"

~snip~ In its pursuit of the US-led "war on terror", the Pakistani government has committed numerous violations of human rights protected in the Constitution of Pakistan and in international human rights law. They include the right to life and the security of the person; to be free from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (ill-treatment); to be free from enforced disappearance and to challenge the lawfulness of detention. Victims of human rights violations in the "war on terror" include Pakistani and non-Pakistani terror suspects, men and some women, children of terror suspects, sometimes held as hostages, journalists who have reported on the "war on terror" and medical personnel who allegedly treated terror suspects.(2)

Irrespective of the "war on terror", the people of Pakistan suffer widespread violations of their civil and political rights. In Pakistan, torture and ill-treatment are endemic; arbitrary and unlawful arrest and detention are a growing problem; extrajudicial executions of criminal suspects are frequent; well over 7,000 people are on death row and there has recently been a wave of executions. Discriminatory laws deny the basic human rights of women and of minority groups.

To this dismal human rights record, Pakistan’s actions in the "war on terror" have added a further layer of violations. Hundreds of people suspected of links to al-Qa’ida or the Taleban have been arbitrarily arrested and detained. Scores have become victims of enforced disappearance (for a definition see section 6); some of these have been unlawfully transferred (sometimes in return for money) to the custody of other countries, notably the USA.

Many people have been detained incommunicado in undisclosed places of detention and tortured or ill-treated. Their families, distressed about the lack of information on the whereabouts and fate of their loved ones, have been harassed and threatened when seeking information. The right to habeas corpus has been systematically undermined as state agents have refused to comply with court directions or have lied in court. ~snip~

http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGASA330362006

U.S. DESIGNATES AL AKHTAR TRUST
Pakistani Based Charity is Suspected of
Raising Money for Terrorists in Iraq
http://www.ustreas.gov/press/releases/js899.htm

Incidently, Harakat ul-Mujaheddin itself seems to have originated in the Reagan era CIA actions against the Soviets in Afghanistan.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT:
Harakat ul-Mujaheddin (HuM)

~snip~ The first organization carrying the name Harakat ul-Mujaheddin was formed in 1985 as part of the jihad against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Most of its original members walked out of another group, the Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami (HuJI), and some trace the original members' training to the CIA-led campaign in Afghanistan. ~snip~

http://www.cdi.org/terrorism/harakat-pr.cfm

[bahrbearian]

6. Don't you realize that he owned the property and the shed

thats more then enough evidence. :sarcasm:

[anotherdrew]

7. I'll be a lot happier when the animals that treated a human this way pay for their crimes

if such monstrous bullshit is how someone intends to "protect" me, my first concern is to see to it that these "protectors", these blind fools, are removed from any vestige of power, by whatever means are most expeditious. I hope that still means elections.

[atreides1]

8. We Would All be Happier

But JohnLocke's statement shows that even here on DU there are some who advocate torture and possibly even murder, not for justice but for revenge!

But that's what this site is about, hearing the different opinions of the mebers, right?

[anotherdrew]

9. yes indeed, hearing from and speaking to...

sadism and psychopathy seem like more appropriate terms for this sort of thing than simply torture.

[ohio2007]

10. everybody overlooks the story between the lines

Daniel Pearl's journalistic savvy got him too close to the truth. What dots he had connected in 2002 but couldn't upload on the net we will never know.

The truth is in Pakistan.