But it doesn’t look as if it is going to fly. And note that they only started claiming to have been tortured after Pakistani authorities rejected their first strategem, which was to claim that they were simply waging jihad, and jihad was not illegal under Pakistani law.
“Arrested US jihad seekers file another petition for release,” from Asian News International, March 7:
Islamabad, Mar.7 : The five US youth arrested in Pakistan on charges of having links with Al-Qaeda have filed another plea for their release.
The plea would be heard on March 8 (Monday) in the district sessions court Sargodha, The News reports.
The five American jihad seekers, who were arrested last year from Sargodha, had earlier moved a bail application which was rejected.
The five accused, who were arrested on charges of ties with terror groups linked with the Al-Qaeda, had pleaded innocence, and said that they were being set up and tortured by the FBI and the Pakistani police.
Waqar Hussain Khan (22), Virginia, Ahmed Abdullah Mani (20), Virginia, Ramay S Zamzam (22), Iman Hasan Yamar (17), California and Omar Farouk (24), Virginia, were arrested in Sargodha on December 9, for plotting terror attacks in Pakistan and Afghansitan, and are locked in a Pakistani jail without being charged.
Pakistan has made it clear that the men, all in their late 20s, would not be deported to the US and that they would be prosecuted in the country itself.