Pakistan hands suspected militant to Egypt -report

By Esmat Salaheddin

CAIRO, May 29 (Reuters) - Pakistan has handed an Egyptian-born Dane to Egypt on suspicion he is a Moslem militant, a London-based Islamist pressure group said on Monday.

``The Pakistani authorities have carried out a criminal act that contradicts with international laws and norms,'' the Islamic Observation Centre said.

``They handed Mohamed Shaaban Mohamed Hassanein, 36, to the Egyptian regime where he is subject to severe torture at state security premises at Lazoughli in Cairo.''

Yasser el-Serri, who runs the centre, told Reuters that Pakistan had deported Shaaban to Egypt on Thursday or Friday.

Shaaban was among four men arrested in Pakistan in March on suspicion of links to Saudi-born Islamic militant Osama bin Laden, suspected of having masterminded the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

The others detained were an Algerian, Afghan and Pakistani.

The Islamic Observation Centre said in a statement faxed to Reuters that Shaaban obtained a Danish passport after having been granted political asylum.

``The Danish embassy in Islamabad was informed of Shaaban's detention...and the Danish prime minister was also informed by fax and e-mail,'' it said.

Serri, who has been granted asylum in Britain, last month urged the Danish government to intervene for fear that Shaaban would be handed over to Egypt.

The Danish embassy in Islamabad declined to comment on the April report. Reuters received a copy of a letter sent by the embassy to Shaaban on January 4 saying that it had asked the Danish immigration service to approve issuing him travel documents. Serri said Shaaban had lost previous documents.

``This proves and confirms that the embassy has known he (Shaaban) is a Danish citizen carrying a Danish (travel) document issued in Copenhagen in July 1996,'' Serri said.

Bin Laden, who tops Washington's most-wanted list, is reported to be living in Afghanistan.

Many Arab Moslem militants settled in Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan after joining the Afghan Islamic 'mujahideen' fighting occupying Soviet troops in the 1980s.