| Spain arrests more alqaeda { September 18 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active) http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=3466433http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=3466433
Spain Arrests More Al Qaeda Suspects Thu September 18, 2003 07:11 AM ET
MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish police on Thursday arrested several people for suspected ties to al Qaeda, including some linked to a journalist for Arab TV network Al Jazeera already charged with belonging to the militant group. The arrests come a day after a Spanish judge formally charged Osama bin Laden, Al Jazeera journalist Tayseer Alouni and 33 others with "belonging to a terrorist group."
Bin Laden and nine others were charged for participating in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
A source involved in the investigation said "about five" people had been arrested and the number could rise.
They were held on the orders of High Court judge Baltasar Garzon near Granada in southern Spain, where Alouni lived and was arrested earlier this month, and in Valencia in the east.
"Some of those arrested have some relation to Tayseer Alouni. They were people close to him," the source said.
Alouni, who interviewed bin Laden shortly after the September 11 attacks, is accused of passing messages and providing money to al Qaeda operatives.
Alouni has maintained his innocence, and his defense lawyer says he is the victim of Western bias.
Garzon on Wednesday formally charged 35 men for links to al Qaeda, about half of them still at large. Ten were charged with playing a role in the September 11 attacks.
Garzon, an investigating magistrate in Spain's third highest court, routinely takes on Spain's highest profile cases and pursues criminal suspects outside Spain's borders.
Garzon rose to international prominence with a failed attempt to extradite and try former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet. He also has spearheaded investigations of former "dirty war" figures in Argentina and Basque separatists in Spain.
|
|