US authorities are seeking the extradition of a Tunisian, already convicted in Belgium for planning attacks, over suspected links to the al-Qaeda network, prosecutors here said.Nizar Trabelsi has already lodged an appeal to a decision by a Belgian court to approve his extradition, which means a final decision is unlikely for some time. "The Americans think that Nizar Trabelsi is an active al-Qaeda member who was developing activities beyond those he was convicted of in Belgium," Lieve Pellens, the spokeswoman for the federal prosecutors, told a news conference.
Trabelsi was arrested two days after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in Washington and New York. He was sentenced in June 2004 to 10 years in jail for plotting to drive a car bomb into Kleine Brogel, a NATO airbase in northern Belgium where American military personnel work.
Trabelsi, who spent time in al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, was also suspected of planning an attack against the US embassy in Paris, although the charges were not pursued during his trial. He openly pledged his allegiance to the al-Qaeda's leader Osama Bin Laden during the trial.
Pellens said that a grand jury in Washington DC had indicted him on November 16, 2007 for belonging to a criminal organisation with intent to murder US citizens abroad, a crime which carries a life sentence. He is also accused in the United States of having tried to use weapons of mass destruction as well as having provided material and financial support to a foreign terrorist organisation.
A court in the central Belgian city of Nivelles, where Trabelsi is being held, had "for the most part" approved the extradition request on condition that he not be rejudged for acts committed in Belgium, said Pellens.
Trabelsi's appeal the decision would be heard in Brussels in "two to three weeks" and could go all the way to the country's top court, she said. After the courts decide on the legality of Trabelsi's extradition, it is up to Justice Minister Jo Vandeurzen to take the political decision as to whether or not to go ahead.