Man wrongly held for Berlin attack living in fear

LONDON: The Pakistani man wrongly arrested for the Berlin truck attack said he had told German police he could not even drive and was now afraid for the safety of his family back home.

Naveed Baloch, an asylum seeker from the troubled province of Balochistan, told the Guardian newspaper he had just left a friend’s house and was crossing a street when he saw a police car approaching fast and picked up his pace.

He said he was arrested and taken to a police station, where he was undressed and photographed.

“When I resisted, they started slapping me,” the 24-year-old, who has been living in a secret location provided by the police since his release because he says he is afraid for his life, told the British daily.

Baloch, who sought refuge in Germany as a member of a secular separatist movement in Balochistan, said he struggled to communicate because no translator could be found who could speak his native Balochi.

“I calmly told them I cannot drive at all. Neither can I even start a vehicle,” he said.

Baloch was arrested on Dec 19, in the hours after the attack on a Christmas market in Berlin in which 12 people were killed.

Police released Baloch 24 hours later, after failing to find evidence of his involvement.

They identified rejected Tunisian asylum seeker Anis Amri as the prime suspect. Amri was shot dead by Italian police on Dec 23.

Baloch, a shepherd by profession, said members of his family in the village of Mand in Balochistan had received threatening phone calls following his arrest.