Posted on 11/08/2002 4:06:44 PM PST by knighthawk
FRANCE today confirmed that recent arrests made in two southern cities were connected to investigations into the al-Qaeda network, as three suspected members of a group close to Osama bin Laden's network went before an Italian court.
French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy told Europe 21 radio that a series of recent arrests - eight in Lyon on Tuesday and one in Marseille last month - were connected to al-Qaeda.
The eight arrested in Lyon are all family or friends of Nizar Nawar, who is believed to have carried out the April suicide attack on a synagogue in Tunisia.
French police arrested a Tunisian man in Marseille on October 14 in connection with an Italian al-Qaeda investigation. The suspect is believed to have been part of a terrorist cell plotting an attack in Europe Asked if all these arrests were linked to al-Qaeda, Sarkozy said: "Sadly, yes."
Meanwhile, in Milan, three men arrested in Italy last year went before a court today on charges of conspiracy, possessing explosives and chemical weapons, falsifying documents and encouraging illegal immigration.
The men - Algerian Hafed Remadna, Moroccan Yassine Chekkouri and Tunisian Nabil Ben Attia - were arrested in November 2001.
A fourth suspect, Egyptian Abdelkadir Es Sayed, is being tried in absentia. He evaded Italian police and could have died in Afghanistan, according to investigators.
The four men are thought to be members of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, an Algerian hardline extremist group opposed to the secular government, prosecutor Stefano Dambruoso said. The group is suspected of ties with al-Qaeda.
If convicted, the men face jail terms of between three and five years.
Remadna and Chekkouri, both 35, worked for an Islamic centre in Milan that is believed to be one of the main meeting points for Muslim extremists in northern Italy.
Remadna was arrested on November 14 as he tried to leave the country. Anti-terrorist police suspect he may have had contacts with Abu Jaffa, believed to one of Osama bin Laden's chief lieutenants.
Chekkouri was detained on November 29 along with Ben Attia, also 35.
According to the charges against them, the two had links with Essid Sami Ben Khemais, a Tunisian arrested in Milan in April 2001, who is thought to have run an al-Qaeda logistics cell in Italy.
Ben Khemais was sentenced to five years in jail in February on the same charges as Remadna, Chekkouri and Ben Attia.
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