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Bosnian Suspect to Surrender in Spain
A Bosnian who is among the suspects in last month's deadly terrorist attacks in Madrid, Spain, will turn himself in, the man's father said Wednesday. The suspect, identified as Sanel Sjekirica, 23, told the daily Dnevni Avaz that he is in Sweden and will travel to Spain on Friday and make himself available to Spanish authorities in Madrid. Sjekirica told the newspaper that he learned that he is a suspect from media reports. He denied any involvement in the March 11 attack and said he "could not believe what was happening."
| "Who? Me? No, no! Certainly not!" |
Sanel's father, Alija Sjekirica, confirmed the report. "He is a good boy and he never got into any trouble," Sjekirica, 68, said by telephone from his home in the southern Bosnian city of Mostar. "I am sure that this is some kind of a mix-up." He told The Associated Press that his son fled to Spain in 1993 during the Bosnian war and was a student, though he was unable to specify what he is studying.
| That's always a bad sign, Pop... |
Sanel Sjekirica said he already had contacted Spanish police and informed them that he would be in Spain on Friday. "They told me that I am not a suspect but that there are some links they want to check," Sjekirica was quoted as saying. Spanish police last week asked the Bosnian office of Interpol to investigate Sjekirica, said Brane Pecanac, the head of the local Interpol bureau. Spain's Interior Ministry earlier this month released the names of three suspects, including Sjekirica, being sought for possible involvement in the group that carried out the attacks on commuter trains in Madrid. The bombings killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800. Most of Bosnia's Muslims are secular and practice a moderate Islam, although extremist Islamic fighters â many from Arab countries â fought on the Muslim side in the country's 1992-95 war, which killed an estimated 260,000 people. Bosnia extradited six Algerians to U.S. authorities in 2002 after police arrested them in October 2001 following a U.S. intelligence alert that they were planning to attack the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo and the U.S. military base in the northeastern city of Tuzla. One of the six, Bensayah Belkacem, had made several phone calls to one of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden's aides â Abu Zubaydah, the operations chief of al-Qaida in Afghanistan â according to U.S. intelligence information. Many stayed and were awarded Bosnian citizenship. Several of the six Algerians worked for Islamic humanitarian agencies in Bosnia.
| If I was the CIA, I'd have a list six miles long of Islamic charities and their... ummm... associates. And I'd share it with the FBI... |
Posted by: Fred 2004-04-14 |
