Posted on 01/17/2002 4:54:01 PM PST by Pericles
Thursday January 17 6:28 PM ET
U.S. to Seize Terrorism Suspects in Bosnia
By Charles Aldinger and Nedim Dervisbegovic
WASHINGTON/SARAJEVO, Bosnia (Reuters) - U.S. troops in Bosnia will take control of six Arabs ordered released by a Bosnian court on Thursday after they were detained in October on suspicion of involvement in terrorism, a U.S. defense official said.
``We intend to take custody as they are released individually,'' the official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. The official said one of the Arabs could be taken into custody by U.S. peacekeeping troops in Bosnia as early as Friday as part of Washington's war on terrorism.
A Bosnian court on Thursday ordered the release of five Algerians and a Yemeni detained in October on suspicion of involvement in international terrorism and links to the al Qaeda network of fugitive Osama bin Laden.
The six, five of whom hold Bosnian citizenship, were arrested by police acting on a U.S. tip after threats closed the U.S. and British Embassies in Sarajevo for five days in mid-October.
``Based on Bosnian law, they had to be released,'' the defense official said in Washington. ``Each one will be released individually according to when they were picked up, and not necessarily at the same time.''
Fahrija Karkin, head of a team of lawyers representing the six, told reporters outside the prison in Sarajevo that the men had not yet been released. He said he had been told they would be given over the United States and held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
``We received information that these people will be extradited to a third country. And what I was hearing (is that) it is America, Cuba,'' he said.
PEACEKEEPING DUTIES EXPANDED
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said American peacekeeping troops in Bosnia might expand their duties to hunt possible suspects in the war on terrorism sparked by the devastating Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
The ruling that the six Arabs should be freed was made by the Supreme Court of Bosnia's Muslim-Croat federation. The court said in the ruling, made available to Reuters, that there was no justification for prolonging their detention.
In response to an appeal from lawyers who fear NATO will spirit the suspects out of the country, the state's top human rights body then ordered local authorities to do everything to prevent four of them from being taken from Bosnia by force.
In the weeks that followed the September attacks on the United States, Bosnian police and NATO-led peacekeepers arrested more than 20 people, mostly of Arab origin, on suspicion they were involved in or supported terrorism.
Most have either been released or deported as Bosnian authorities said none had links with al Qaeda.
But officials have said the final six still in detention were suspected of having links to bin Laden's al Qaeda network, accused by the West of carrying out the suicide attacks in New York and Washington.
Federation Deputy Interior Minister Tomislav Limov said in October U.S. intelligence information helped uncover the suspected terrorists.
NO HARD EVIDENCE FROM U.S.?
But local media have reported that the United States has not actually provided hard evidence needed to charge the six and human rights activists have urged their release.
The Supreme Court said in the ruling that there was no justification for prolonging their detention.
``Considering a proposal of the deputy federation prosecutor and the state of the case, the investigative judge agreed that the reasons on which the detention was ordered and extended no longer applied...,'' the court decision said.
Bosnian media have speculated that the six might be detained by NATO immediately on their release and extradited to their home countries or to the United States.
Nadja Dizdarevic, wife of detained Algerian Boudella Hadz, said: ``If they have been extradited, and these people are innocent, it means that this is not a war against terrorism, this is a war against Islam.''
The Chamber for Human Rights, the internationally chaired top human rights body in Bosnia, said four of the suspects should remain in the country.
Lawyers said the panel had decided it could not issue the same order for the two others for various legal reasons.
The six were part of a community numbering hundreds of Arabs who either stayed in Bosnia after the 1992-95 war in which they fought as ``Mujahideen'' with Muslim-led government forces or came to the country after the conflict ended.
Many of them obtained Bosnian citizenship through marriages with Bosnians or for fighting against Serb and Croat forces and some worked with Islamic humanitarian agencies.
Clinton's Allies in Bosnia - The 7th Mujahedeen Brigade
Anyone else think we should continue to help Bosnia? We should never have to begin with
That period was one of the rare times I was truly ashamed of my country.
Sounds like another umma court.
Anyone else think we should continue to help Bosnia?
Like it says, 'ya gets what ya paid for'.
I wonder if they've ever requested that Nasir Oric be prosecuted for war crimes?
Let's see. You insist your husband's not a terrorist, but you talk exactly like a terrorist. Lady, you've got a credibility problem.
In response to an appeal from lawyers who fear NATO will spirit the suspects out of the country, the state's top human rights body then ordered local authorities to do everything to prevent four of them from being taken from Bosnia by force.
Spirit out: Function: verb Synonyms: KIDNAP, abduct, snatch
If the Bosnians were simply handing the prisoners over to the US the men in question would not fear that they would be taken from Bosnia by force.
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