Kamer Nizamdeen’s family urges Australian authorities to arrest real culprit

• Maintains his innocence
• Silent vigil held at Independence Square calling for Nizamdeen’srelease

 A silent vigil was held yesterday at Independence Square demanding the release of KamerNizamdeen, with over 500 people gathering at the venue.

Those gathered included family, friends, colleagues, civil society groups and rights activists.

In a statement to the media, Nizamdeen’a maternal uncle Dr. KaleelCassim asserted that Nizamdeen had been framed and urged Australian authorities in charge of the investigation to arrest the real culprit.

“We have the utmost confidence in the judicial process of Australia. Kamer has been framed and we have faith thatKamer will be proven innocent. At the moment, the matter is in the hands of the investigators and we urge the investigators to apprehend the person who actually wrote the statements, as the culprit is still at large and is a danger to life and property in Australia.”

He said that Nizamdeen’s family was alarmed at the manner of his arrest and the lack of any substantial evidence.

“We as his family are very alarmed at the manner in which the arrest of Kamer took place, hastily based on flimsy evidence which was a notebook that was not found in Kamer’s possession and had been found to be in his old workstation, which he had not been working at since 2August.”

Maintaining Nizamdeen’s innocence, Dr.Cassim pointed out that Nizamdeen’s family had not been given access since the time of his arrest.

“Since the time of his arrest up to now, Kamer has reiterated that alleged notes in the book are not in his handwriting. It has been 18 days since his arrest but family members have still been denied access to him and Kamer has not been able to make telephone calls which he is legally entitled to do. We are deeply concerned.”

Nizamdeen was arrested in Sydney on 30 August and accused of planning terror attacks, according to the New South Wales Police. (SG)

Pix by Sameera Wijesinghe