Abduction claims denied
Greek authorities denied yesterday any knowledge of, or involvement in, the alleged abduction and interrogation of Pakistani immigrants, who a lawyer told Parliament yesterday had been questioned by British agents in connection with July’s terrorist attacks in London. Frangiskos Ragousis, who is also the lawyer of one of the November 17 members, Savvas Xeros, submitted a file to Parliament asking the Public Order and Justice ministries to provide information about the «the clandestine and illegal conditions with a complete disregard for international treaties» in which the migrants were «abducted and tortured and why there was no progress with the investigation.» The well-known lawyer had also submitted a file to Athens prosecutors on July 29 claiming that seven migrants were abducted from an apartment in Petralona on July 15, blindfolded and then taken to a secret location to be questioned for several days about the July 7 bombings in London. Attica police denied knowing anything about the incident when the allegations were made public a month later. Prosecutor Dimitris Papangelopoulos ordered a preliminary probe into the claims on September 29. However, the Public Order Ministry said that it had not received any official complaint about the alleged incident until yesterday, when the prosecutor’s file arrived by post. The ministry said there had been no Greek involvement in the alleged incident. «There has been no official complaint of this kind,» said alternate government spokesman Evangelos Antonaros. «Greek authorities have no involvement.» The head of the Unity of Pakistan organization in Athens, Javed Aslam, told Kathimerini that a total of 28 Pakistanis had been abducted in Athens, Ioannina and Oinofyta, north of Athens. He said the migrants believe they were arrested by Greeks but were later questioned in English about relatives and contacts in London. The British Embassy in Athens refused to comment on the allegations made by Ragousis and said it would not «enter into media speculation about the alleged operations of the UK’s security and intelligence services, no matter how far-fetched – as it is in this case.»
