Zehir Omar, the lawyer acting for Khalid Rashid, has applied for leave to appeal to Pretoria’s High Court. Rashid is the Pakistani whose disappearance in 2005 initiated court proceedings challenging the government’s claim that it did not facilitate an extraordinary rendition as part of the ”war on terror”. Minister of Home Affairs Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula claimed to have deported Rashid in the normal course of business.

Khalid Rashid — the Pakistani whose 2005 deportation from South Africa sparked a media furore and a court challenge to the government — has broken his silence. And his account, in a telephone interview from Pakistan, flatly contradicts the Home Affairs Department’s repeated claims that he was deported as an illegal immigrant in terms of standard procedure.