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Alert

Authorities deny holding journalist Khawar Mehdi Rizvi despite statements by President Musharraf

(RSF/IFEX) - RSF has expressed profound shock following the Federal Investigation Agency's (FIA) denial before two Sindh High Court judges that the agency was holding Pakistani journalist Khawar Mehdi Rizvi in custody.

FIA Deputy Director Sarwar Khan and Pakistan's deputy prosecutor each made the denial on 13 January 2004 in response to a habeas corpus petition lodged earlier by Abid Saqi, the lawyer for Rizvi's family. Both Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and a Foreign Ministry spokesman recently said that the journalist was being held for "investigation," RSF noted.

On 12 January, two French journalists for the weekly "L'Express", Marc Epstein and Jean-Paul Guilloteau, saw their six-month jail sentences cut to a fine and were allowed to leave the country. The French journalists were working with Rizvi on a report about the Taliban at the Afghan border.

RSF said it was shocked at the obvious flouting of the law. On the one hand, the highest authorities said the security services were holding the journalist for "investigation," while on the other, the courts had no access to the detained person or his file, the organisation said.

As two Karachi-based judges said on 13 January, it is offensive to see a Pakistani journalist held in secret detention while his French colleagues are released and allowed to leave the country.

The Sindh High Court judges said they were very displeased with the response from the authorities and called on the federal government to appear before the court on 20 January and explain Rizvi's situation and the official reasons for his detention. RSF also fears that Rizvi has been subjected to abuse since his arrest.

While making a statement about Rizvi to the press on 12 January in Islamabad, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said, "He is not a poor chap. We found a faked report on him and the investigation is [still underway]."

President Musharraf personally cast doubt on Rizvi's professional qualities in a earlier statement. On 29 December 2003, he told representatives of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society, "This freelance journalist has done terrible harm to the national interest in making this fake film on the Taliban, and for only 2,000 dollars. If he had come to me I would have been able to give him 3,000 dollars not to make this film."

Rizvi, a freelance journalist who regularly works with foreign journalists, has received support from the French newspapers "Le Monde" and "Libération", the French television channels TF1 and France 2, and the American newspapers "The New York Times" and "Chicago Tribune".

Epstein and Guilloteau, meanwhile, have had their passports returned to them and were due to leave Karachi on 13 January. Epstein told Agence France-Presse, "I am very worried about Khawar because we have no news of him."

The three journalists were arrested on 16 December in Karachi after completing a report on Taliban groups operating along the border with Afghanistan.