By LITO RULONA
Correspondent
THE Bangladeshi who alleged that he was being illegaly detained at the Misamis Oriental jail has filed a habeas corpus petition.
The petition was filed by lawyer Alejandro Jose Pallugna on behalf of 38-year old Ahmed Asif Iqbal, arguing that the Bangladeshi has been detained for two months without being charged in court.
“Iqbal was illegally detained without proper charges and so, we filed the petition,” said Pallugna.
He said the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation has not even released a charge sheet which could be the basis for the detention.”
He said what the Bureau did after a hearing last month was to accuse Iqbal of overstaying and human trafficking.
Pallugna said it was a case of “putting the cart before the horse” apparently “in an attempt to legitimize an otherwise illegal arrest.”
He also accused some police officers of being in cahoots with some immigration officers and the wife of Iqbal.
Iqbal was arrested in Lapasan some two months ago because he was supposedly wanted in Bangladesh and in the US. He is allegedly wanted for triple murder in the US and human trafficking in Bangladesh.
Pallugna has also filed a motion for the immediate dismissal of the Bureau’s charge sheet, asserting that the accusation of overstaying and human trafficking against Iqbal were untrue and without any basis.
Pallugna said Iqbal has married a Filipino identified as Marilyn Neri Sacay, making the issue of overstaying “moot and academic.”
He said Iqbal was going to apply for an immigrant visa by reason of his marriage to Sacay, and for an extension to stay in the Philippines for the purpose of accomplishing the visa application.
Pallugna also said the complaint for human trafficking was filed against Iqbal in Bangladesh by one of his cousins who had an ax to grind.
He identified the complainant as Mohammad Faisal Mahmod Khan who went to the Philippines to attend the wedding ceremony of Iqbal.
Pallugna said the accusation for human trafficking should be disregarded because of a certification by a court on Bangladesh that there was no warrant of arrest or deportation order issued against Iqbal.
“The respondent found out that the human trafficking case was mere a ploy of respondent’s wife to get him deported so that she may reap from the investments that will be left here when he gets successfully deported as in fact it was the husband of a known associate of Marilyn Neri Sacay who arrested the respondent while he was walking peacefully in streets of Barangay Lapasan, this city,” Pallugna said.
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