Joe W. ____________________
By Imran Panjwani | National News |
Thursday, 26 June 2003
US authorities secretly flew five men accused of having ties to al-Qaeda out of Malawi, local officials said on Wednesday, despite a court order barring their deportation. The men, all foreigners accused of funnelling money to Osama bin Laden's terror group, were arrested on Sunday night in a joint operation involving the CIA and Malawi's National Intelligence Bureau.
Authorities in this southern African country handed the men over to US officials on Monday night, said Fahad Assani, Malawi's director of public prosecutions. Men's whereabouts not known The men were immediately flown to nearby Botswana on a chartered Air Malawi flight, Malawi intelligence officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Assani said he did not know the men's whereabouts. Robin Diallo, spokesperson for the US Embassy in Malawi declined to comment, and US Embassy officials in Botswana did not return a phone call from The Associated Press.
Men had been on CIA "watch list"
Officials in Malawi said the men had been on the CIA's "watch list" since the twin 1998 bombings at the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. US authorities blame al-Qaeda for the attacks. Four men linked to the group were convicted in US federal court in 2001 for their roles in the bombings. Malawi's government has refused to discuss in detail the allegations against the five men arrested here, suggesting that to do so would endanger state security.
Top prosecutor not aware of handover
The revelation on Wednesday morning that the men had been out of the country for nearly two days flew in the face of ongoing court hearings about their fate and exasperated Assani, the nation's top prosecutor, who said he was unaware of the handover until Wednesday. A judge issue an emergency injunction on Monday — before the men were turned over the US officials — barring their deportation, according to security sources. With no knowledge the men were already gone, the High Court ruled on Tuesday that the government's deportation efforts were illegal and demanded prosecutors either charge the men or release them by Wednesday morning.
US refused to share info with prosecutor
Assani said on Tuesday that he did not know what to charge the men with, since US officials refused to share information with him. Assani had been ordered to bring the men to court for a hearing on Wednesday, a day and a half after they had secretly been taken out of the country. "Who can I produce in court now? Their ghosts?" he asked in frustration on Wednesday after learning the men were no longer in Malawi. "These people are out of reach for us. It's the Americans who know where they are." At the Wednesday hearing, High Court Judge Frank Kapanda ordered the men released on bail immediately. But they were long gone.
Families worried
The suspects' lawyer, Shabir Latif, said he did not know where his clients were and their families were growing increasingly worried. Ella Ulusam, the Malawian wife of one of the arrested men, Arif Ulusam, burst into tears outside the courthouse. "I don't know what's happening to him. I don't know where he is. "I don't know whether he is alive or dead," she said. The couple, who have a young child, had been planning to visit Arif Ulusam's family in Turkey, but that was before authorities broke into their house and handcuffed and blindfolded Arif Ulusam before taking him away, she said. Courthouse protests About 100 Muslims outside the courthouse angrily protested the disappearance of the men and Latif accused the government of violating the constitution. Assani said pressure from Washington had forced the government's hand in the case. "These are matters of security," he said. "We are talking about global terrorism here, and whenever it can Malawi has to assist in the fight." Malawi has no extradition treaty with the United States, but authorities said the men were "prohibited immigrants" who posed a threat to national security and had to be deported to the unidentified country where they last lived. Authorities said the men included Mahmud Sardar Issa, a Sudanese who heads a charitable organisation called the Islamic Zakat Fund Trust in Blantyre. Another was identified as Fahad Ral Bahli, of Saudi Arabia, the director of the Malawi branch of Registered Trustees of the Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz Special Committee on Relief. Arif Ulusam, another Turkish man and an Islamic scholar from Kenya were also among those arrested, authorities said. While some other parts of Africa have been used as al-Qaeda staging grounds, Malawi had previously not been a major focus of investigations into the group. The poor, landlocked nation has a 20 percent Muslim population. Sapa-AP