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Posted on 10/10/2003 11:35:17 AM PDT by joan
SARAJEVO, Oct 10 (AFP) - Algeria and Egypt have sought the extradition of two of their nationals arrested in Bosnia on suspicion of terrorist involvement, a Bosnian official said Friday.
Aissa Benkhira, 35, with dual Algerian and Bosnian citizenship, was arrested last month on an Interpol warrant issued in 1995, the Bosnian court official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Amquad Youssef, an Egyptian also with dual Bosnian citizenship, was arrested in August as he attempted to enter the Balkan country with a fake Belgian passport. He was also named on an Interpol arrest warant issued in Cairo.
The official said the Bosnian constitution forbade the extradition of Bosnian citizens, but the case of Youssef was being examined to determine whether he obtained his citizenship legally.
Justice officials here have asked Algeria to submit the case against Benkhira so that he can be tried in Bosnia.
Benkhira was tried in absentia and sentenced to death in his native country for participating in a 1995 attack on an Algerian industrial zone that killed six people including five foreigners, the source said.
The Islamic Armed Group (GIA) was suspected of being behind the attack. The GIA has been battling the Algerian government for more than a decade in a bid to establish an Islamic republic.
Youssef is suspected of being a member of al-Jihad, an Islamic extremist organisation based in Egypt, the source said.
During Bosnia's 1992-95 war hundreds of volunteers from Islamic countries joined the Muslim-led government army to fight the Serbs and Croats.
Under the 1995 peace accords, all foreign fighters were ordered to leave but some of them managed to obtain Bosnian citizenship on the basis of their military service or by marrying local women.
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