Al-Qaeda had fake SA passports

2004-05-27 10:45

Johannesburg - Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi told parliament local police had arrested and deported several people linked to the al-Qaeda terror network, a newspaper reported on Thursday.

The Star on Thursday reported Selebi had told the national assembly's safety and security committee on Wednesday that the arrest, days before the April 14 general elections here, also prompted arrests of other al-Qaeda suspects in Jordan, Syria and Britain.

"We arrested some people who had evil intentions against this country - we did not tell anybody - five days before the election. We got these people to leave," the newspaper quoted Selebi as telling the committee.

"As part of this operation, in London, the British police found boxes and boxes of South African passports in the home of one of these people," Selebi said.

Selebi neither gave specifics on what action the al-Qaeda suspects planned in South Africa, nor did he explain why the government did not disclose the arrests until now.

Selebi told the committee he was disclosing the arrests as an example of the battle faced by government in stamping out corruption in the department of home affairs, which issues passports.

- AP