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| Down Under |
| Anti-terror judge to quiz Aussies |
| 2004-08-20 |
| FRENCH anti-terrorist prosecutor Jean-Louis Bruguiere will come to Australia to investigate international al-Qaeda links including those involving convicted Australian bomb plotter Jack Roche and suspect Willie Brigitte. Judge Bruguiere told The Weekend Australian yesterday that Australia had already briefed him about Roche. The Perth man has offered to strike a deal with authorities in return for testifying against key alleged terrorists in foreign courts. He says he has information on Christian Ganczarski, one of the men allegedly responsible for the 2002 bombing of a mosque in Tunisia that killed 21 people. Judge Bruguiere said Roche's connections would be one of several issues bringing him to Australia. Also of interest was Brigitte, the French national who was returned from Australia to France last year amid suspicions that he was part of an al-Qaeda linked cell planning a bombing campaign. Judge Bruguiere is interrogating Brigitte over his suspected terrorist activities in Australia, Asia, and Europe. "I am interested in Willie Brigitte, of course, and many other cases," Judge Bruguiere said. "We are all interested in these issues, including Jemaah Islamiah," he said, referring to the al-Qaeda-linked group responsible for the Bali bombing in 2002. "We have to face right now a global threat. All the networks are scattered around the world." As revealed by The Australian this week, Roche has recently been interviewed by Australian Federal Police officers and produced witness statements - so far unsigned - for Indonesian and German authorities, and Judge Bruguiere. Roche, a British-born Muslim convert, is awaiting an appeal hearing on September 9 of his nine-year sentence for conspiring to blow up the Israeli embassy in Canberra in 2000. "I have been on good speaking terms with agencies such as ASIO," Judge Bruguiere said, referring to discussions he has held about Roche. Judge Bruguiere, a legendary international investigator who jailed Carlos the Jackal, said the timing of his visit depended on the global terrorist danger. "The level of threat is very high right now," he said. "I am in charge of all these cases, with the Islamic threat in the US and Europe as well, and I am concerned about the situation in Iraq and the elections in the US. There are also major concerns about Southeast Asia. You have an erratic situation, you can't put it all into a computer to explain it." |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #1 I'll be damned - good call Ozzies. Right man for the job. In fact, if all of the politics, asshats, and innumerable irrelevancies were stripped away, this would be the guy I'd want in the NID position. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-08-20 11:12:46 PM |