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7/7 suspect used SA cellphone
07/08/2005 14:04 - (SA)
London - The Briton suspected of links to the al-Qaeda terror network was deported to Britain from Zambia on Sunday.
Britain sent a plane to collect Haroon Rashid Aswat, who was detained in the Zambian capital on July 20, and he boarded a flight to Britain at 09:00 (07:00GMT), Zambian Home Affairs Secretary Peter Mumba said in Lusaka.
It is not clear whether Britain suspects Aswat, a British citizen of Indian descent, of involvement in the London bombings in July.
Zambian authorities questioned him about 20 phone calls reportedly made on his South African cellphone with some of the bombers responsible for July 7 attacks that killed 56 people in London. British and American investigators have also interrogated Aswat, 31, according to Zambian officials.
A London police spokesman would not comment Sunday on whether Aswat was facing charges in Britain, and said he was "not aware that there are any extradition proceedings," regarding Aswat.
A Foreign Office spokesperson said the department "been aware that deportation measures were under way," but she said she was "unable to confirm specific details." She spoke on condition of anonymity, in keeping with department policy.
British newspaper reports, citing security sources, have said that investigators don't believe Aswat was linked to the London attacks.
He has been implicated in a 1999 plot to establish a terrorist training camp in the western US state of Oregon, hostage-taking in Yemen and funding terror training in Afghanistan. He was reportedly once an associate of Abu Hamza al-Masri, a radical Muslim preacher who is awaiting trial in Britain on charges of incitement to murder.
Aswat told Zambian investigators he used to be a bodyguard for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
London police on Saturday charged Yassin Hassan Omar, suspected of a failed bomb attack in London July 21, with conspiracy to murder and possession of explosives - the first charges to be made in Britain against any of the men suspected in four failed bomb attacks on London's subways and a bus.
- AP
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