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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Aussie fugitive’s terror ’confession’ |
| 2004-06-01 |
| THE Sydney fugitive arrested in Lebanon has confessed to raising terror funds in Australia, recruiting potential holy warriors and organising bombings, Beirut’s chief prosecutor said last night. In claims that surprised Australian authorities, Prosecutor-General Adnan Addoum said the movements of Saleh Jamal, 32, had been monitored before he jumped bail in March using a false passport. Mr Addoum said Jamal had confessed to attending Palestinian refugee camps since he fled Australia in March and to forming links with al-Qaeda members in Lebanon. He also apparently confessed to a role in a bombing last month near the embassy district in the Syrian capital, Damascus. Police sources confirmed yesterday that a second man arrested with Jamal, Haitham Milhem, was also a Sydney resident. The nature of the charges against him were due to become clearer by early this morning. A Palestinian man and another of unknown nationality were arrested with the Australian-based pair. Australian Federal Police investigators were speaking with Mr Addoum late last night in an effort to trace Jamal’s movements and the exact nature of the charges he is facing. Neither the federal Government nor police had been able to glean anything about Jamal’s arrest on Friday, primarily because Monday was a public holiday in Lebanon. Jamal fled Australia using a passport issued to someone else, and NSW police were not aware he had left the country. He had been granted bail weeks earlier after serving two years on remand, awaiting a long-delayed series of trials into serious firearms offences. Mr Addoum told the Nine Network that Jamal had said "I make contact, I give money and I have received money from some people in Australia and I come to here to try and make contact to make people to follow the organisation". "And he make many contact to see how to make organisation in Lebanon and he make many contact with people in Australia," Mr Addoum said. "Your police was watching this." |
| Posted by:tipper |