Spain arrest: Family told about charges

More than four months after Mumbai-based businessman Roshan Jamal Khan was arrested from a mosque in Barcelona, Spanish authorities have informed his family the reason for his arrest and the charges he is facing.

Last week, Cesar Alba, the Consul General of Spain in Mumbai, in a letter, informed Khan’s family in Jogeshwari that the 50-year-old businessman had been detained as part of an operation undertaken by the Spanish Civil Guard. The letter started that at “this moment he is in prison and awaiting judgement for the crime of integrating with a terrorist organisation and of illegal possession of explosives”.

Alba went on to reassure Khan’s family that he will be provided the opportunity “to present all the necessary evidence in his favour”. Khan’s family had made a representation before Alba on March 30 seeking intervention in the matter.

“We have been going to authorities all these months but we were never told about the case against him. And now we receive this letter. We don’t know what to do,” said Khan’s eldest son, 16-year-old Talha.

Khan, who was in a prison in Barcelona till last month, has been shifted to a high-security prison outside the city, and is allowed to make four-minute phone calls to his family thrice a week. But he has still not been provided with an interpreter, the family said.