Nicaraguan officials said Thursday they had no evidence a suspected al-Qaida figure passed through their country to Honduras, but said it was possible.
| With enough cash, you could pass a battleship through Nicaragua without anyone noticing |
Honduran officials said Wednesday that Adnan Gulshair El Shukrijumah was spotted earlier this year at an Internet cafe in the capital, and was believed to have entered the country illegally from Nicaragua or Panama. "We do not rule out that this man could have been here or passed through Nicaragua, but disguised and with false documents," national police spokesman Freddy Salvatierra said Thursday of the Saudi-born suspect.
Salvatierra said that since the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States, Nicaragua has developed an extensive network to detect suspected terrorists, "and the only way he could pass unnoticed would be in camouflage."
| Or disguised as a drug smuggler |
Panamanian officials said El Shukrijumah arrived in Panama legally from the United States in April 2001 - five months before the Sept. 11 terror attacks - and stayed in the country for 10 days. He also visited Trinidad and Tobago for six days the next month. Immigration records show El Shukrijumah then returned to the United States, Interior Department spokesman David Salayandia said. |