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| Europe |
| Germany Nabs Suspected al-Qaida Financier |
| 2004-10-15 |
| Authorites on Friday arrested a Syrian-German businessman who is wanted by Spain on charges he helped fund the al-Qaida terrorist network for years and who appeared in a wedding video at a mosque with some of the Sept. 11 hijackers, German officials said. Mamoun Darkazanli, 46, was taken into custody in Hamburg on a Spanish warrant and is being held for possible extradition, city judicial spokeswoman Sabine Westphalen told The Associated Press. Darkazanli was questioned by German police shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States after it emerged that three of the suicide hijackers lived and studied in Hamburg. He was freed for lack of evidence and continued to live in the German port city. His Hamburg-based trading company was has been labeled a front for terrorism by the Bush administration. Darkazanli was one of the first people to appear on U.S. suspect lists after Sept. 11, but has denied any links to bin Laden or the attacks. Spanish authorities allege that Darkazanli was "one of the key figures of the al-Qaida terror network" and "the permanent contact person and assistant of Osama bin Laden in Germany," Hamburg authorities said in a statement. Gosh, you mean Bush was right? He is accused of giving logistical and financial support to the network in Spain, Germany and Britain since 1997, the statement said. The U.S. Treasury Department ordered a freeze of his personal assets and those held by his import-export company. German officials followed suit and placed him under formal investigation, but until now have been unable to arrest him for lack of evidence. He first caught the attention of German investigators in 1998 when they learned he had power of attorney over a German bank account opened by bin Laden's suspected financial chief, Mamdouh Mahmud Salim. |
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