Missing Pakistani Journo Found Jailed In Home Country Report

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Pakistani investigative journalist Syed Fawad Ali Shah who was reported missing from Malaysia six months ago has been found alive in a prison in his home country.
According to his lawyer P Waytha Moorthy, the 41-year-old was found in jail some 300km away from his hometown, believed suffering from psychiatric issues and ill health due to alleged torture by the Pakistani authorities.
"All this time, they (the Pakistani authorities) denied that Syed Fawad (above) was in Pakistan. For the first time, they revealed his whereabouts, that he was at the Adiala jail.
“We believe his emergence was due to a habeas corpus filing which we made here," Waytha was quoted telling news portal FMT.
Late January, Syed Fawad's wife, who's only known as Syeda, filed a habeas corpus application on behalf of her husband at the Kuala Lumpur High Court, seeking among others, for the court to declare that the police and Immigration Department had acted wrongly and violated the law in deporting the journalist last August.
Prior to his deportation, Syed Fawad, who is renowned for probing government corruption and missing persons via several English dailies in his home country, had spent a decade in exile in Malaysia.
Last year, Syeda pleaded for Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's help to locate her missing husband.
Lawyer P Waytha Moorthy'Abducted by secret service'
According to Waytha, Syed Fawad told Syeda that he was “kidnapped” by the Pakistani secret service, before being taken to the airport on a stretcher and put on a Pakistan International Airlines flight without any travel documents.
Once back home, he was allegedly placed in an underground dark room cell, where he was purportedly tortured.
Waytha, who is also the Malaysian Advancement Party (MAP) chief, claimed that Syed Fawad sported bruises on his face from alleged torture, and suffered from skin disease, likely due to lack of exposure to sunlight.
He further alleged that the Pakistani also reportedly suffered from a psychiatric condition from his detention, as the latter kept repeating his words and expressed utmost fear for his life.
Waytha also told the portal that Syed Fawad told his wife he could be framed for more offences if he tried to fight his detention.
Syed Fawad was reportedly only taken to the prison from the underground cell two days prior to being allowed to meet his wife on Feb 8. - Mkini

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