–FO Spokesman Dr Faisal says convicted spy was involved in ‘anti-state crimes and forging documents’
ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office (FO) on Monday announced that convicted Indian spy Hamid Nehal Ansari was being released and repatriated to India after his jail term completed on December 15.
“Hamid Nehal Ansari, an Indian spy who had illegally entered Pakistan and was involved in anti-state crimes and forging documents, is being released upon completion of his sentence and is being repatriated to India,” FO Spokesman Dr Muhammad Faisal said in a tweet.
#HamidNehalAnsari, an Indian spy who had illegally entered Pakistan and was involved in anti-state crimes and forging documents, is being released upon completion of his sentence and is being repatriated to India.
— Dr Mohammad Faisal (@DrMFaisal) December 17, 2018
Ansari, a Mumbai resident, was arrested in 2012 for illegally entering Pakistan from Afghanistan reportedly to meet a girl he had befriended online.
He was later convicted by a Field General Court Martial on charges of espionage and anti-state activities on Dec 15, 2015. He was sentenced to three years imprisonment. He denied the charges and claimed that he had visited Pakistan to help a female Facebook friend in Kohat as she was in trouble.
Ansari’s lawyer Qazi Mohammad Anwar told a Peshawar High Court (PHC) bench that his client was attacked at least thrice by jail inmates in recent months. Anwar also told the court that Ansari had been kept in a death cell with a hardened criminal awaiting execution for a murder.
On Dec 13, a PHC bench had directed the Interior Ministry to make arrangements for the deportation of the Indian national within one month of the completion of his three-year prison term.
The PHC bench had observed that government departments should make all arrangements before the completion of Ansari’s prison term, as keeping him in detention beyond the sentence would tarnish the image of the country.