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Spain pursues Tunisia bomb suspect
MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A Spanish magistrate has issued an international arrest warrant for a suspected al Qaeda financier accused of paying for the bombing of a Tunisia synagogue last year and remanded to jail two men suspected of collaborating with him. The arrest warrant names Essa Ismail Muhammad, alias Isaac de Karachi, according to court documents read to reporters by someone close to the case. Muhammad, 44, was born in Canada and holds a Pakistani passport, the court documents said. The bombing in Tunisia last April killed 19 people. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility. A court official did not know whether another country has already issued an arrest warrant for Muhammad. The two men who were remanded to jail by Investigative Magistrate Ismael Moreno were among five suspected financial collaborators of al Qaeda who were arrested last Friday. The other three were released without bail Wednesday. It was not immediately clear whether they were still being investigated. The two suspects sent back to jail were identified as Enrique Cerda Ibanez, a Spanish citizen, and Ahmed Rukhsar, a Pakistani national. They could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison if convicted of collaborating with al Qaeda, the official told CNN. Prosecutors allege that the two men were in control of bank accounts in Spain that Muhammad used to move money in and out of the country. Some of this money "was used to finance the commission of the attack on the synagogue" on the southern Tunisian island of Djerba, according to the 8-page court order. A second court official told reporters that investigators also found a letter from Muhammad to the suicide bomber in the synagogue attack, advising him to get 5,000 euros (about $5,300) from Enrique Cerda. It was not known if the money ever was passed to the bomber. The second official also said that Muhammad had been in contact with Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, considered a top al Qaeda mastermind who was arrested March 1 in Pakistan. A private attorney for Cerda said his client is innocent. A court-appointed attorney for Rukhsar did not say how his client pleaded. The court order also draws a circuitous link between Cerda and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed through another series of individuals. Mohammed told a man named Nissar Nonar to establish telephone contact in Spain with Cerda, prosecutors allege, and Nonar contacted Cerda through his brother, Walid Nonar. They communicated "on repeated occasions, to undertake terrorist activities," the documents state. Further, the documents say, three men were found to have Cerda's number: Nissar Nonar, Walid Nonar, and another man named Daniel Morgenegg. The latter two are under investigation by French authorities for the Tunisia bombing, the court documents say. After Mohammed was arrested, sources told CNN that material found during the capture was a "treasure trove" of information. It was not clear whether any of that information led to the arrests in Spain. Financial gainThe three people released Wednesday, all Spanish citizens, are Federico Tarazona Tarazona, a ceramic tile salesman, Francisco Palop Monje, an employee at a fishing supply store, and Maria Dolores Cerda Ibanez -- the sister of Enrique Cerda Ibanez. A family lawyer said Enrique, a Catholic, is about 40 years old and is the chief salesman at his family's firm, which produces adhesives for ceramic tiles. He is married and has two daughters. Maria owns the small company which employs about 12 people. The manufacture of ceramic tiles is a major industry in eastern Valencia Province, where Cerda was arrested last Friday, while staffing his firm's booth at a ceramics industry convention. The industry exports much of its product to Arab nations, including Egypt and Jordan, lawyers at the courthouse told CNN. The entire ceramic sector, as well as Cerda's business, have been going through difficult times recently, Cerda's family lawyer told CNN. The second court official who talked to reporters said Cerda might have been motivated to become involved with Essa Ismail Muhammad simply for financial gain. The two had annual transactions of about $64,000. Reports have said Rukhsar, arrested in northern Spain, operated a telephone store in which people could come in to make long-distance phone calls. No more details were immediately available about him. No recordsThe arrests of the five people by Spanish officials last Friday was done in collaboration with anti-terrorism officials from France and Germany, and with support from investigators from the United States, Switzerland, Portugal and Tunisia, Spain's Interior Ministry said. The four Spaniards were detained in an eastern Valencia province. Rukhsar was detained in the city of Logrono, in the northern winemaking region of La Rioja. According to reports, the five had no previous arrest records. Paramilitary Civil Guards, who conducted the roundup of the suspects Friday, also searched a dozen homes and businesses, seizing documents and computer materials that were being analyzed. Spain has arrested 40 suspected Islamic terrorists or collaborators since the September 11 attacks. Most of them remain in custody and many have been linked to al Qaeda, but none has been tried. Mohamed Atta, who authorities say piloted the first plane to strike the World Trade Center, was in Spain two months before the attacks, and authorities believe the purpose of his trip was to hold a pre-attack summit with other senior figures in the plot. Investigators have told CNN that Spain has been a key logistics base for al Qaeda and related Islamic terrorist groups, who have been provided with financing, safe houses and recruitment opportunities inside the country. -- CNN Madrid Bureau Chief Al Goodman contributed to this report.
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