Posted on 06/03/2004 11:58:41 PM PDT by Destro
June 4, 2004 Friday
Japan arrests 8th man linked to al-Qaeda
TOKYO (AFP) - Japanese police arrested an eighth foreign national on Thursday in their nationwide crackdown on a suspected al-Qaeda network in Japan, officials and news reports said.
A 37-year-old Bangladeshi identified as Shiddiqur Rahmann, 37, was arrested in Gunma, north of Tokyo, on suspicion of violating immigration laws, a local police spokesman said.
"We arrested the Bangladeshi factory worker as we suspect the man overstayed although his visa expired," the spokesman said.
The Bangladeshi man was the eighth foreign national arrested in connection with an investigation into Lionel Dumont, 33, a Frenchman linked to al-Qaeda who stayed in Japan after the September 11 attacks in the United States, news reports said.
On Wednesday, the Tokyo Police Department arrested another Bangladeshi man, named as Zaynal, 34, the seventh foreigner allegedly linked to the Frenchman, police and news reports said.
Japanese police launched a nationwide investigation into suspected al-Qaeda activities on May 26, arresting five foreign nationals for visa violations - three other Bangladeshis, an Indian and a man from Mali - over their frequent contact with Dumont, the reports said.
Police later arrested a 24-year-old Filipino woman in connection with the investigations.
Dumont belonged to al-Qaeda's logistics arm and police suspect he was engaged in raising funds, money laundering and forming a terrorist network while hiding here between July 2002 and September 2003, according to earlier reports.
Police and security agencies have refused to comment on Dumont's reported stay in Japan, although it has been tacitly acknowledged in comments by politicians including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
Dumont is included on a US Treasury Department list published in June 2003 specifying 17 individuals linked to al-Qaeda whose assets had been frozen.
He was arrested in Germany in December 2003 for non-terrorist offences and was extradited last month to France, where, in 2001, he was sentenced in absentia to life in prison for armed robbery.
After dropping out of university, Dumont converted to Islam in 1993 and fought for the Mujahadeen alongside the Bosnian army in Bosnia-Hercegovina.
He returned to France and is suspected of forming the "Roubaix Gang" in 1995, which carried out armed robberies to raise funds for the Islamist cause until he fled a police raid a year later. He reportedly came to Japan in July 2002 despite the country's stepped-up immigration measures after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
bump
bttt
clinton Legacy Bump!
Another terrorist off the street.
TANK EU, TANK EU, TANK EU------------- JAPAN
"for us or against us" alert.
Thanks for posting this breaking news.
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