Witness threat in Sahil kidnap trial

THREE witnesses have been threatened and warned not to testify in the trial of a gang charged with organising an Oldham five-year-old’s kidnapping in Pakistan, a court heard.

Relatives of Sahil Saeed, who was kidnapped for 13 days in March 2010, travelled from Pakistan to the Provincial Court in Tarragona, North-East Spain, to give evidence in the trial of Muhammad Zahid Saleem, his wife Gianina Monica Neruja and their flatmate Muhammad Sageiz.

But the boy’s uncle Rizwan Saeed, aunt Madhea Rizwan and Mrs Rizwan’s sister Israa today asked not to give evidence because they “fear for their safety” after being warned in Pakistan not to talk.

The three were present when Sahil was snatched by four masked men armed with AK-47 assault rifles and grenades at his grandmother’s house in Jhelum while on holiday with his father.

The boy was released in Pakistan after a £110,000 ransom was dropped off in Paris and allegedly collected by Saleem and Neruja.

Saleem, Neruja and Sageiz deny charges of kidnap of a minor, conspiracy, robbery in conjunction with a crime of trespassing and eight charges of unlawful arrest.

Jose Manuel Sanchez, who presides over the panel of three judges, ruled the witnesses should give their evidence. But he said a screen should be placed in front of the defendants to make the witnesses “feel more comfortable”.

Speaking in Punjabi with the assistance of an interpreter, Rizwan Saeed, the brother of Sahil’s father Raja Saeed, said: “We were all together because Raja and Sahil were going back to England.

“A taxi arrived.. Then the masked men came running in with rifles and jackets with grenades. They kicked and hit us, one hit me with the butt of his rifle.”

After spending the night ransacking the homes of Sahil’s grandmother and the neighbouring property of his great-uncle, the kidnappers made off with Sahil as the first early morning calls to prayer were sounding out.

Mrs Rizwan’s younger sister Israa said: “Our lives are not the same, we cannot go out of our house now.”

Proceeding.



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