New twist in al-Qaeda arrests

2004-07-30 23:33

Deon de Lange

Johannesburg - Aziz Pahad, deputy minister of foreign affairs, on Friday expressed concern at the latest development in the case of two South Africans arrested in Pakistan on Sunday.

Firoz Abubakar Ganjee, a Johannesburg doctor, and Zubir Ismail, 20, an Islamic studies student from Laudium, were arrested along with 11 other suspected al-Qaeda members in a house in Gujrat in Pakistan after a wild shoot-out with security forces.

Pahad says the fact that suspected embassy bomber Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani of Tanzania was part of the arrested group could complicate the South Africans' case.

Ghailani was wanted in connection with the 1998 bombing of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in which 224 people died and 5 000 were injured.

'International security issue'

Pahad said: "On Thursday, we still were full of hope we would soon get access to the (men). Today (Friday), I am less optimistic.

"With the involvement of Ghailani, the case has taken on a serious security aspect.

"What was earlier just a foreign affairs issue is now an international security one."

Pahad said the Pakistani department of foreign affairs had said the case was now outside their jurisdiction.

But, Pakistani authorities have not been able to say whether Ghailani and the South Africans knew each other or whether it was coincidental that they were together.

There is also no indication on what, if any, charges have been brought against the South Africans.

When asked about the death penalty in Pakistan, Pahad said the South African government would first wait for the country's legal process to take its course before it took a decision.

The other possibility is that the South Africans could be extradited to the United States. Since the September 11 attacks in 2001, Pakistan has handed more than 500 suspected al-Qaeda members to the US.

- Beeld