Chile orders Pakistani allegedly caught with bomb traces at US Embassy back to prison

Chile returns Pakistani explosives suspect to jail

SANTIAGO, Chile — A Chilean appeals court ordered a Pakistani man back into a high-security prison Saturday, saying the chemicals allegedly found on his possessions at the U.S. Embassy and inside his apartment could only have come from direct contact with explosives.

Mohammad Saif Ur Rehman Khan has said it all must be a misunderstanding and that he wants America to be safe and secure.

But the appeals court overturned a magistrate who said there wasn’t enough evidence to justify his preventive detention.

Court president Lamberto Cisternas wrote that evidence shows he carried powerful explosives, and that he represents not only “a danger to the security of society,” but also, “in some ways, to the success of the investigation.”

Evidence shows his things “only could have been contaminated with the explosive substances, Tetril and TNT, through direct contact,” the judges added, and that “this enables one to presume that the suspect has been associated with people who illegally possess explosives.”

Khan, 28, must now return to a high-security prison where suspects being investigated under Chile’s anti-terrorism law are kept. He is being held for investigation on a charge of possessing explosives. If a judge eventually agrees to bring him to trial and he is convicted, he could face three years in prison.

In a message read to reporters by his lawyer, Khan proclaimed his innocence.

“I have trust in Chile’s judges and judicial system,” the letter said, according to La Tercera newspaper. “I am sure that we will win this case when the truth overcomes falsehood.”

“I know who is doing this and why they are doing this to me and my family,” he added, without elaborating.