Posted on 10/11/2002 5:23:06 PM PDT by knighthawk
State Prosecutor Adnan Addoum on Thursday referred to the Military Tribunal three detainees suspected of forming an Al-Qaeda cell in Lebanon.
The suspects included two Lebanese: Mohammed Sultan, also known as Abu Hamdi, and Khaled Minawi, also known as Abu Talha. The third is a Saudi national named Ihab Dafaa, also known as Abu Hareth.
Addoum also referred to the Military Tribunal the minutes of their interrogation by military intelligence personnel.
The initial investigation had shown that the three were planning to set up an Al-Qaeda cell for the group’s members who fled Afghanistan and other Central Asian states to regroup and retrain fighters.
The would-be cell of the group blamed by Washington for last year’s attacks on the United States was also planning to help some outlaws flee their current hiding place in Ain al-Hilweh as a prelude to joining the future cell.
There were also plans to hire foreign instructors to train the members of the Lebanese cell in all facets of conducting a jihad, or holy war, and the use of explosives.
Meanwhile, the government commissioner at the Military Tribunal, Magistrate Maroun Zakhour, assumed custody of the three suspects along with their files and has started his own investigation of the issue, judicial sources said Thursday.
Zakhour is to charge the three with forming a terrorist group for the purpose of undermining the state’s security by attacking people and properties and using false passports to travel to and from this country.
Minawi, who hails from Tripoli, had met an Al-Qaeda operative in Turkey named Abdullah Turki. The latter was responsible for raising money for Al-Qaeda.
Turki had visited Lebanon several times and met Mohammed Sultan and traveled with him to Germany where they worked together buying and selling cars to make money for Al-Qaeda.
Turki, who is also known as Obeida, had contributed over $20,000 of his own money toward this project.
According to the judicial sources, Turki discussed during his last trip to Lebanon the possibility of setting up an Al-Qaeda cell and studied the possibility of achieving this objective under the pretext of commercial activities.
The two had reportedly inspected an apartment in Tripoli with the hope of converting it to an Al-Qaeda office. They were also preparing to open a restaurant and were contemplating the purchase of a $7,000 radio set to contact remaining Al-Qaeda members in Afghanistan, sources said.
These guys really need to become a little more creative.
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