The strange case of Journalist Nayyar Zaidi

[TonyGosling]

The strange case of Journalist Nayyar Zaidi
Nayyar was indicted by a federal grand jury on April 23, 2008, but his court-appointed lawyer has refused to show him the complaint, advising him instead to cooperate with the FBI or “you will die here”
Nayyar Zaidi, who has lived in the United States for the last thirty-five years and who is one of the most prolific of our journalists, vanished around spring this year. None of the small band of those who write for Pakistani newspapers noticed his disappearance for some time, but since I was the one most in contact with him, I began to ask others if they had run into Nayyar.

Nobody had. Phone calls to his family produced vague answers. The embassy did not know either, including its cloak-and-dagger men, who tend to keep an eye on us rather than on the heavy presence of their counterparts from our great neighbour to the east.
About two months ago, Irshad Salim, who runs Des Pardes, an online paper from New Jersey, reported that Nayyar was in a US federal prison in Ohio, which is hundreds of miles from here. The news was so startling that we simply could not believe it.
Why was he there, was the first question that came to our lips. He was there, so the arresting authorities claimed, because he had crossed state lines with the intention of committing a felony, the felony being an attempt to obtain sex from a minor. The minor did not exist as it was a sting, a police trap laid through the Internet. All this has been very hard on his family and his friends, especially because this is the last thing anybody would have expected or anybody is willing to believe.
I have filed a few reports for this newspaper, based on what I was able to learn. However, I did not have a direct communication from Nayyar till last week, which provides me with Nayyar’s side of the story.........
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C09%5C14%5Cstory_1 4-9-2008_pg3_3


Nayyar Zaidi writes about his detention
http://www.slideshare.net/chowrangi.com/nayyar-zaidi-writes-about-his- detention