Case Karim Mehdi- French arrested in 911 Probe

posted by ewing2001 on Thursday June 05, @01:19PM

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20030605_1738.html

French Arrest Two Men in Sept. 11 Probe

French Authorities Probing Sept. 11 Attacks Arrest a Moroccan and a German at Paris' Airport

The Associated Press

PARIS June 5 —

"...French authorities investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States have arrested two men a Moroccan and a German believed to be a top al-Qaida recruiter in the last two days at the Paris airport, judicial officials said Thursday.

The officials said they believe there's a link between the two suspects.

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On Sunday, Karim Mehdi, a 34-year-old Moroccan, was taken into custody at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, the officials said on condition of anonymity. He had arrived from Germany and planned to leave to the French island of La Reunion off southeastern Africa.

Mehdi allegedly was planning a terror attack against a tourist complex on the island, the officials said. Further details about the site or timing of the attack were not immediately available.

On Monday, Christian Ganczarski was apprehended at the airport and was to appear before an anti-terrorism judge in the coming days, the officials said on condition of anonymity.

Ganczarski also allegedly had links to the April 2002 suicide bombing of a historic synagogue on Tunisia's tourist island of Djerba that killed 21 people, including 14 German tourists, the officials said.

German authorities allowed Ganczarski to leave the country in December because there was not sufficient evidence to arrest him, German officials said at the time.

Ganczarski was being investigated for suspected membership in a terrorist group after being traced as the recipient of an intercepted phone call from Nizar Naouar, the leading suspect in the Djerba bombing who is believed to have died in the suicide mission.

Mehdi's arrest was the first in France since French anti-terrorism judges opened an investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks just a few weeks after they took place in 2001.

He appeared before a judge Thursday and was placed under investigation one step short of being officially charged for alleged connection with a terrorist enterprise, officials said. He was being held in custody.

The judicial sources said they believe Mehdi had links to a suspected cell of the al-Qaida terror network operating out of Hamburg, Germany.

Three of the suicide hijackers who seized control of commercial airliners for the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington including the alleged ringleader, Mohammed Atta allegedly had ties to the Hamburg cell.

A Hamburg court in February convicted Mounir el Motassadeq, also a Moroccan, and sentenced him to 15 years in prison for providing support for the Hamburg cell. He was the first Sept. 11 suspect anywhere in the world to be convicted for his part in the attacks.

Another Moroccan man, Abdelghani Mzoudi, is to go on trial in August in Hamburg on the same charges.

Three weeks ago, a dozen suicide bombers all believed to be Moroccan killed 31 other people in five nearly simultaneous attacks in Morocco's largest city, Casablanca.

On Tuesday, authorities arrested a Frenchman, 28-year-old Robert Antoine-Pierre, in connection with the Casablanca attacks. He was the first non-Moroccan implicated in the attacks, which targeted Jewish and Spanish sites and a major hotel..."

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