dinsdag, januari 13, 2004
The Karachi court on Monday freed two French journalists who were sent to prison for violating visa regulations. Reporter Marc Epstein and photographer Jean Paul Guilloteau from L’Express weekly were arrested by the Pakistani authorities last month. The court sentenced them to six months after ruling that they had visited the city of Quetta, near the Afghan border, without permission. Their term was reduced to seven days after lawyers filed an appeal.
Since the two journalists had already spent that long in the prison, they were set free. The court increased the fine against the journalists from 1750 dollars to 3500 dollars each. Police said the Frenchmen’s visas only allowed travel to Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi.
A Pakistani journalist who was working with the two reporters as a fixer, Khawar Mehdi Rizvi, was detained with them. Pakistani security officials alleged that the two journalists were trying to portray some local armed tribesmen as Taleban during their stay in Quetta in December, but the allegation was not raised in the court. Soon after their arrest last month, President Pervez Musharraf criticised the two men and their Pakistani fixer for trying to defame the country by falsely presenting the country as a hub of Taleban activities.
A petition by the lawyer acting for the two Frenchmen argued for the suspension of the jail term on the basis that they were “highly respectable journalists and not criminals”. Although Pakistan has a liberal visa policy following some trouble in the border region with Afghanistan in recent months, it has imposed restrictions on foreign nationals from travelling in the area.
Bron: Pakistan News Service.
Since the two journalists had already spent that long in the prison, they were set free. The court increased the fine against the journalists from 1750 dollars to 3500 dollars each. Police said the Frenchmen’s visas only allowed travel to Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi.
A Pakistani journalist who was working with the two reporters as a fixer, Khawar Mehdi Rizvi, was detained with them. Pakistani security officials alleged that the two journalists were trying to portray some local armed tribesmen as Taleban during their stay in Quetta in December, but the allegation was not raised in the court. Soon after their arrest last month, President Pervez Musharraf criticised the two men and their Pakistani fixer for trying to defame the country by falsely presenting the country as a hub of Taleban activities.
A petition by the lawyer acting for the two Frenchmen argued for the suspension of the jail term on the basis that they were “highly respectable journalists and not criminals”. Although Pakistan has a liberal visa policy following some trouble in the border region with Afghanistan in recent months, it has imposed restrictions on foreign nationals from travelling in the area.
Bron: Pakistan News Service.
# posted by Jan-Edward : 11:51
|
|