Police let Pakistan team go home to avoid 'diplomatic incident' by AFP

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Event:

ICC World Cup 2006/07

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DateLine: 26th March 2007

 

The police chief in charge of the investigation into the murder of Pakistan cricket team coach Bob Woolmer said in an interview published Monday that he let the team leave Jamaica to avoid sparking a "significant diplomatic incident."

 

Speaking to The Times, the country's deputy police commissioner Mark Shields added that he was working with two Pakistani diplomats to ensure their return to Jamaica if they were needed for further questioning.

 

Woolmer was found unconscious in his hotel room on March 18, and was declared dead a few hours later. His death came just a day after a stunning loss to cricketing minnows Ireland, knocking Pakistan out of the World Cup.

 

Holding the Pakistan team in Jamaica "would have caused a significant diplomatic incident and had an extremely adverse effect on the World Cup," Shields said.

 

There would have been an uproar "if I had started holding people against their will," he added.

 

Authorities declared members of the Pakistan team in the clear, at least for the time being, and allowed them to leave the island on Saturday, when they flew to London for a stopover on their way home.

 

The police chief had told reporters in Kingston on Sunday that investigators were carefully looking at images taken by closed circuit cameras in the Pegasus hotel, and were focusing on the 12th floor, where Woolmer was staying.

 

Shields told The Times that detectives were also looking at records of every door keycard in the hotel to monitor residents' movements: "It's a huge task. But when we do that, we get the time of death."

 

Pakistan team spokesman Pervez Mir meanwhile told the Daily Mirror details of what three of the team's members -- captain Inzamam-ul-Haq, caretaker coach Mushtaq Ahmed and manager Talat Ali -- had been asked when they were questioned by police for a second time.

 

Inzamam was apparently asked why he changed his room in the hotel from the 12th floor to the fifth, a move he made before Woolmer's murder, to which he responded that he wanted to be closer to the team's players.

 

He was also asked what time he went to bed, but Mir said he did not know what Inzamam's answer was.

 

Police asked Ali why he changed floors from the 12th after Woolmer's death, to which he responded that he was scared. He was also asked how many times a day he prayed, a question he declined to answer.

 

Ahmed was meanwhile asked about cuts to his face, which he said he sustained during the team's practice on the morning of the Ireland match.

(Article: Copyright © 2007 AFP)