Pakistan says Spain has solid evidence against its nationals

7 May 2008

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan said Tuesday the Spanish authorities had concrete evidence against its nine nationals arrested for planning a terrorist attack in Spain and other European countries.

"The Spanish investigators have solid evidence against nine of the twelve Pakistanis arrested in Barcelona. The material used in the blast was recovered from them," Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told the Senate, upper house of the parliament.

The 12 were detained in several Barcelona apartments in the early hours of January 19 on a tip from Pakistani authorities that a group of terrorists had arrived in Spain to carry out the attacks similar to those of which killed 190 people in Madrid sub-trains assaults in 2004. Several fuse timers were recovered from them.

"Three of these suspects were released due to the lack of evidence against them," Qureshi said.

He was replying to the Senator Anwar Bhindar, who complained that the culprits were being held by Spanish government without any judicial remand.

Qureshi said the Spanish law enforcement agencies had the powers to keep anyone in custody for long time without court proceedings.

[dpa / Expatica]