Swiss authorities have arrested a man suspected of furnishing al Qaeda members with false identities, bringing to 10 the number of arrests in the case, the federal prosecutor’s office said on Thursday. The false identity case is one of three Swiss investigations which show the country was used for support but not as a major base for al Qaeda, said Federal Prosecutor Valentin Roschacher, delivering a progress report on Swiss terror probes. "Switzerland has so far not played a central role as a location for the activities...of the international terror network al Qaeda, although it is suspected that offences in logistical and financial support were committed in the country," Roschacher told a news conference.
The three cases will now be passed to the criminal courts, he said. The false identity probe was launched after the deadly attacks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in May last year. Investigators discovered 36 Swiss telephone numbers used in connection with the attack, which led to the initial nine arrests. None were Swiss. The 10th arrest was made in May but revealed only now for security reasons, officials said. Of the 10, six remain in pre-trial detention under suspicion of running a false identity network for Middle Eastern terror activists, who entered Switzerland illegally and then were furnished with falsified papers. Four have been released but remain under investigation. "The investigations revealed that once in Switzerland, the smuggled individuals, some of who could have had close contacts with al Qaeda, either disappeared or were illegally moved on to other European countries," the prosecutor said in a report. |