ARRESTED DRUG SMUGGLER USED STOLEN PASSPORT

A 25-YEAR-OLD British woman, who was named by Pakistani authorities as
a suspected drug smuggler under arrest in Karachi, was at home in
Britain yesterday trying to come to terms with her unwelcome notoriety.

Rebecca Neumark, from St Asaph, Clwyd, in North Wales, is the rightful
owner of a passport found on a woman of Western appearance detained
while trying to smuggle 5lb of heroin out of Pakistan, an offence that
carries the death penalty. Miss Neumark's grandmother, Edith, said the
passport disappeared, with a handbag, credit cards and other personal
effects, when her granddaughter's Land Rover was stolen in London four
months ago.

The Pakistani authorities, apparently having accepted travel documents
found on the arrested woman as bona fide proof of identity, named her
on Friday as "Rebecca Elizabeth Neumark, a British national". This was
reported in good faith by Agence France Presse, the international news
agency, and duly reported in some English newspapers (not The Daily
Telegraph).

But the Foreign Office said yesterday: "The real Rebecca Elizabeth
Neumark is in Britain with her parents. Her passport had been stolen
and so we have no idea of the name or nationality of the person
arrested." A representative of the British High Commission visited the
unknown woman in her cell yesterday.

Steven Smart, a member of the legation staff, said in Karachi last
night: "I have been sent a report but have no intention of sharing
that information with the press."

Miss Neumark reported the theft of her car and belongings to the
police in London immediately after it occurred in March. Her
grandmother, who lives at Ramsgreave, near Blackburn, Lancs, said:
"Rebecca has just got engaged and is very upset at what has happened.
It was bad enough having all her belongings stolen but now this.

"Her father, Peter, is absolutely furious and is talking about suing
those responsible for the wrong name being published. If I know my
son, he means what he says."

The unknown woman was arrested on Friday at Karachi's Quaid-e-Azam
international airport as she prepared to board a Swissair flight to
Amsterdam via Zurich. The heroin was found in cavities in her
suitcase. She was brought before a magistrate and remanded in custody
for two days.

Pakistan recently launched an intensive campaign to stamp out drug
smuggling. Those detained face tough punishments ranging from lengthy
prison sentences in the country's notoriously unpleasant jails or even
the death penalty.

The Foreign Office spokesman said the woman under arrest had secured
legal representation. The spokesman said: "Our first priority is to
ensure that everyone now understands that she is not who she was first
reported to be.

"Our second is to look after the interests of the woman in detention
so long as she is found to be British. If our inquiries show that she
is, then our involvement will continue. If she is found to be a
foreign national, then obviously it will not."