Department of Home Affairs officials may have acted ”suspiciously” when they deported Pakistani immigrant Khalid Rashid, but there was no sufficient proof that they knew he was wanted for questioning in connection with alleged acts of terror when he was handed to Pakistani authorities, three high court judges have ruled.
A full bench of the court, headed by Transvaal Judge President Bernard Ngoepe, on Friday rejected an application to have Rashid’s arrest, detention and deportation declared unlawful, unconstitutional, an ”enforced disappearance” and a ”crime against humanity”.
Ngoepe, Judge Cynthia Pretorius and acting Judge JLM Snijmann said there was no reason to question evidence by senior Department of Home Affairs officials that Rashid was arrested because he was an illegal immigrant.
Rashid had admitted that he entered the country without a visa and bought a fake work permit, and had told authorities he did not want to appeal the decision to deport him.
The department also placed evidence before the court in which Pakistan admitted receiving Rashid in his home country, although no further particulars were furnished for ”reasons of security”.
The court rejected argument that persons were not liable to be detained pending the outcome of appeals against their deportation, saying no country would allow thousands of illegal foreigners to roam freely all over the country without proper documentation, especially in view of the level of crime in the country.
It also rejected argument that the department knew Rashid was being sought for questioning in connection with terrorist acts and should not have handed him over without first securing an undertaking from Pakistan that he would not be executed.
Confidential file
Rashid’s lawyer, Zehir Omar, sought to place information emanating from a confidential Department of Home Affairs file before the court in an attempt to prove that the department knew about the terrorist claims against Rashid.
The file, which earlier disappeared, turned up in Omar’s possession under ”bizarre” circumstances and the court found that he and his personal assistant had wilfully ignored a court order that the contents of the file could not be published.
The judges struck out any information emanating from the file, fined Omar and his assistant R2 000 each (suspended for three years) for contempt of court, and referred the matter to the Northern Provinces Law Society.
They said it was ”troubling” that Rashid was handed over to Pakistani officials at Waterkloof Military Base, but there was no reason to accept allegations that the base was not a port of entry.
”The conclusion is that, notwithstanding the fact that there are some acts by the respondent which may be suspicious, there are not sufficient proven facts from which an inference can be drawn that at the time Rashid was handed over, the authorities were aware that he was being sought (if that was the case) for questioning in connection with alleged acts of terror.
”All the authorities knew was that he was being taken back to his own country. Rashid’s deportation cannot be declared invalid for the reason that the South African authorities did not extract an undertaking from the Pakistani government that his life would not be in danger. Such a duty cannot routinely exist in respect of every deportee.
”Rashid has not disappeared; it is common cause that he was handed over to the Pakistan authorities and that he is in Pakistan. How he is treated there in his own country is another matter,” the judges said. — Sapa