|
||||||||
  |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pakistan confirms Australian al Qaeda suspect held
CANBERRA, Australia -- Pakistan has confirmed it is investigating a 29-year-old Australian over possible links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network and offences under Pakistan's terrorism laws, but no charges have yet been laid. The man, Jack Terrence Thomas from the southern city of Melbourne, is a convert to Islam who changed his name to 'Jihad' about four years ago. He is the fourth Australian to be arrested or held over suspected al Qaeda links. Two men -- David Hicks and Egyptian-born Mamdouh Habib -- are being held in a U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, while Perth man Jack Roche is being held in Australia. Thomas is believed to have spent much of the past year living in Pakistan having moved there with his wife and family. It is believed he may have travelled to Afghanistan in 20001 and trained with al Qaeda forces there. The Australian government said Monday the man was detained by Pakistan authorities in Karachi on January 4 and was being investigated for "possible offences under Pakistan's security/terrorism laws." He had been sought for over a year by Australian and Pakistan officials. The Australian High Commission in Islamabad has requested access to Thomas but it is yet to be granted, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported Tuesday. Australian Federal Police Commissioner, Mick Keelty, said authorities had been aware of the man since the September 11 attacks in the United States. Keelty said it was up to Pakistan to decide how he would be treated but if he was released to Australian authorities then charges might be laid here. Refuge"It is alleged that the man trained with al Qaeda in Afghanistan in mid-2001," Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Attorney-General Daryl Williams said in a joint statement. "He is believed to have been in Pakistan over the past year and has been sought by the Pakistan authorities," they said. The man, described as a Caucasian with family in Australia, last departed Australia in March 2001, according to government records. Al Qaeda is blamed for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, and hundreds of al Qaeda members, many of them foreigners, are thought to have taken refuge in Pakistan after the collapse of their Taliban allies in Afghanistan in late 2001. Pakistan says it has arrested more than 400 suspects from hardline groups since Washington launched its war on terror. Reuters contributed to this report.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
