British child suffers nightmares after kidnap ordeal, court told

Raja Saeed was giving evidence at the trial in Tarragona, north-east Spain, of two Pakistani men and a Romanian woman accused of organising the kidnapping of his son Sahil in March 2010.

Muhammad Zahid Saleem, his wife Gianina Monica Neruja and their flatmate Muhammad Sageiz deny kidnap, conspiracy, robbery and eight charges of unlawful arrest.

Four masked men armed with AK-47 assault rifles and grenades struck while the Oldham youngster was at his grandmother’s house in Jhelum in the Punjab region of Pakistan while on holiday with his father.

An international police operation was launched and the boy was released in Pakistan after his uncle went to Paris to hand over a £110,000 ransom, allegedly collected by Saleem and Neruja.

Sahil, who is now seven, spent 13 days in captivity.

Speaking at the court in Tarragona yesterday, Mr Saeed said the boy suffers nightmares and has problems eating.

He said: “My son is not that bubbly kid he used to be any more. He used to laugh with me, he was a happy kid but now he is always scared. A few months ago he started talking about the kidnap and spoke with his sister about it. If I go to Pakistan he says, ‘don’t go there’.”

Mr Saeed said Sahil has difficulties at school and is being helped by a children’s psychiatrist.

Saleem, Neruja and Sageiz deny it is their voices in recordings of phone calls to Sahil’s family

Sahil’s uncle Tauseer Ahmed told the judges that Sahil’s mother, his sister Akila, had “gone through hell” during the kidnapping

He also described how he went to Paris to drop off the ransom raised by family members accompanied by British police officers.

He received a mobile call in which an Asian man threatened to cut Sahil’s arm off and to leave parts of his body in Pakistan.

He was later instructed by a woman speaking in broken English with a “European accent” to take the cash to a square in central Paris. He was told to drop the money and walk away quickly without looking back but got a quick glance of “a lady” picking up the bag.

After their arrest, Spanish police recovered £101,670 and 3,650 euros from the defendant’s flat in Tarragona.

Saleem claims he picked up the money as a favour for a cousin in Pakistan. After his arrest, his brother Muhammad Nasir was arrested and died in a shootout when a third brother, Muhammad Naveed, and their cousin Mudassar Safeer tried to free him.

The case continues