Border guards 'suspicious of journalist's watch'
A British journalist held in Pakistan amid claims of spying was taken into custody after his €230 wristwatch aroused the suspicions of border guards, it emerged today.
Amardeep Bassey, the investigations editor of the Birmingham-based Sunday Mercury, was detained on May 10 near the border with Afghanistan and is expected to be released without charge and deported to the UK next week.
The Mercury reported today that guards on the Khyber Pass had found the Casio Mono watch, which features a digital camera, in the journalist’s bag.
Pakistani authorities, who were also suspicious of the Wolverhampton-born reporter’s Indian background, told Mr Bassey that his watch and a dictaphone appeared to be ‘‘incompatible with his professional requirements’’.
A friend of the 29-year-old told the newspaper that Amardeep was given the watch, which is available from retail giant Argos, as a Christmas present.
‘‘It was just a bit of fun, not something out of a James Bond movie,’’ the unnamed friend said.
The Trinity Mirror group, which owns the Mercury, said last week that the Home Secretary of the North West Frontier Province had recommended that the reporter be deported.
This recommendation must now be approved by the Interior Ministry in Islamabad.
Trinity Mirror has described the spying allegations as ludicrous, and MPs, MEPs and the National Union of Journalists have all demanded Mr Bassey’s immediate release.
It is understood he was arrested on a minor passport irregularity while crossing into Pakistan from Afghanistan.
