LONDON: The Pakistani man, who was wrongly arrested for the Berlin truck attack, Friday said he had told German police he could not even drive and was afraid for the safety of his family back home. Naveed Baloch, an asylum-seeker from 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 police since his release because he says he is afraid for his life, told the British daily. Baloch, who sought refuge in Germany, 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 December 19 in the hours after the attack on a Christmas market in the heart of Berlin in which 12 people were killed. Police released him 24 hours later, after failing to find evidence of his involvement. German authorities have since identified rejected Tunisian asylum-seeker Anis Amri as the prime suspect in the Berlin attack. Amri was shot dead by Italian police on December 23 after fleeing a manhunt in Germany. Following the publication of the Guardian interview, Berlin police strongly denied that Baloch had been assaulted. In a statement, police said they had asked Baloch about the allegations on Friday and that he “clearly stated he had not been beaten, injured or mistreated while in custody”.
