ISLAMABAD, Feb. 18, Reuter: A board of Pakistani judges on Thursday ordered 17 foreigners to be freed after ruling they were illegally detained for up to seven years, the official APP news agency reported.
It did not give the nationality of the 17. It quoted authorities as telling a meeting of the Federal Review Board in Lahore that they would be deported to their country of origin.
The Board found the foreigners were originally detained under legal orders but some of these orders had expired in 1981 and others in 1983 and 1984.
“It was thus manifest that the detainees were being detained for several years despite the period of their legal detention or sentence having been expired long ago,”, the agency quoted the board as saying.
Three applications by Indian nationals will be considered by the Board in its next meeting on February 27, the agency said.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 26, 1988
