4pm update British pensioner hits out at FBI Staff and agencies Wednesday February 26, 2003 The Guardian British pensioner Derek Bond, who was today released from a 21-day spell in custody in South Africa, has hit out at the American authorities who held him. Mr Bond was detained after the FBI mistook him for a dangerous fugitive. The 72-year-old, from Bristol, broke down in tears as he spoke of his ordeal. He said his constant protestations of innocence had "made little impact" on the FBI, which ordered his arrest. His voice shook with emotion as he told a news conference: "I was getting quite despondent." He revealed how he had to sleep on a concrete floor, and had only a newspaper crossword for company. "Since they [the US] consider themselves the leading country in the world, I thought that they would take a more human approach," Mr Bond said. "I did not eat for three days: I had such a knot in my stomach that I just couldn't take any food ... When I started to have something of an appetite, I was quite happy to try the African food, but it just wasn't for me. I have certainly lost weight." He said he now knew that the FBI file on him was "at least four years old". "I think they owe me a great deal more than an apology. There was very, very little action from the FBI," he added. "Nobody took a statement from me until I had been ten days in the police cells: [that] was the first time that they asked me who I was." Mr Bond said there was "every possibility" that he could make a claim for compensation. "I will need to take advice from my lawyers, but there does seem to be a justified claim," he said. Mr Bond said that he had no real criticisms of the South African police. "We first arrived in South Africa on January 27, and we were held for seven hours at Cape Town while the facts of the arrest were reported to the FBI. The FBI did not respond at all ... The first response we had from the FBI was about ten days after I came into South Africa. With his wife Audrey at his side, Mr Bond broke down at one point, when he mentioned his grandchildren. "I just want to go home," he said. Mrs Bond told the news conference: "I have never felt like this in my life. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't eat ... The first couple of days I had to talk to him through a glass panel, which was filthy." Mr Bond, who was arrested while on a wine-tasting holiday and spent almost three weeks behind bars at a police station in Durban, was freed after the FBI admitted that he was not the man they wanted in connection with a multi-million dollar fraud in the US. A man believed to be the real suspect was arrested in Las Vegas last night, FBI investigator John Lewis told BBC Radio Five Live. "We got the wrong man," Mr Lewis said. "Mr Bond is owed an apology." He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the suspect arrested in Las Vegas "had identification in the name of Robert James Grant, but eventually admitted that his name was Derek Lloyd Sykes and he apparently had a British passport in the name of Sykes". "He has admitted he is the person whom we have charged," Mr Lewis added. "He has not confessed to the crime ... The short answer is: it is a case of identity theft. As far back as 1989, the person arrested this evening was using the name, the identity of Derek Bond. "It is very frequent. In a sense, it is out of control, and obviously in this case it has caused one person an awful lot of harm." Mr Bond's MP, Valerie Davey, said she would be writing to the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, to raise concerns about the case. The MP for Bristol West said: "The idea that the FBI can authorise any country to arrest and then leave a person for more than 24 hours, without any question of their identity, raises huge questions ... How a British citizen can be held by the FBI in that way I find incredible." Mr Bond's South African lawyer, Waldow Thore, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We are absolutely elated ... The comedy of errors and the strangeness of this whole incident is just unbelievable. "We are really over the moon that, at last, what we have been pushing the Americans to come to some conclusion about has been finalised." Mr Bond's son Peter, 45, said later that he did not believe his father would travel home for several days. "I would not think for one minute that he is up to travelling that distance for some time," he added. The FBI was hunting a suspect known by the names of Derek Bond and Derek Lloyd Sykes, who had the same date of birth and passport number as the retired businessman from Bristol. The Interpol website said the wanted man "may be dangerous", listing his offences as property conspiracy, fraud conspiracy and money laundering. Mr Lewis, who is the prosecutor in the case, told Radio Five Live's Up All Night programme that, following an anonymous phone call made to him yesterday, FBI agents in Las Vegas arrested a man with a passport in the name of Derek Lloyd Sykes. Mr Lewis said he believed it took so long to clear Mr Bond because he waived his right to an identity hearing in South Africa and had agreed to be extradited to the US, a move Mr Bond's family said he had conceded in a bid to clear his name as quickly as possible. But Stephen Jakobi, director of Fair Trials Abroad, said: "He can only have agreed to be extradited on advice ... I hope his MP presses for an inquiry to find out what the Foreign Office was doing, why it took so long to be cleared up and who advised him to agree to be extradited." He added: "It seems quite extraordinary that it could not have been cleared up in 24 or 48 hours." British diplomatic sources said the arrest in Las Vegas came about only after intense media reports of Mr Bond's arrest and the circulation of the picture of the real fugitive. A photograph of a man bearing a resemblance to Mr Bond was circulated last March, and posted on the Interpol website. The website named the suspect as Derek Bond, with the alias Derek Lloyd Sykes, and described him as having blue eyes, weighing 160lb and being 1.77 metres (5ft 10in) tall. He is also said to wear a toupee while his date of birth is given as January 26, 1931. Peter Bond accepted that the birthday and name matched, adding: "There are some resemblances there, and I would be the first to admit it, but anybody who knows my father knows it's not him. "The description says his hair is blond or brown, but my father has had grey hair for the last 20 years. Mr Bond, a former engineer, was questioned at the airport in Cape Town when he arrived, and arrested a few days later in a KwaZulu-Natal holiday village. Keith Nepean, president of Clifton Rotary Club, which Mr Bond helped to found, has known the retired businessman for 40 years, and said he was "delighted" at the news. "We knew he was innocent and, having known Derek for 40 years, knew he was not the man they were after," he added. He said of the FBI inquiry: "We played the diplomatic route for two weeks, and things were very slow. When the media was brought in, we had a fabulous response. I'm quite convinced this led to the release. Perhaps that is the way things are these days."
Guardian Unlimited � Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003
-- Euphorian
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