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Madrid links to September 11
17/03/2004 21:05 - (SA)
London - Jamal Zougam, a principal suspect in last week's bomb attacks in Madrid, is believed to have links with Abu Qatada, an alleged al-Qaeda leader in Europe detained in Britain, newspapers said on Wednesday.
Documents compiled by a top Spanish anti-terrorist judge, Baltasar Garzon, have suggested Zougam has ties to a Spanish al-Qaeda cell led by a man named Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, otherwise known as Abou Dahdah, who was charged for allegedly helping prepare the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
Zougam, a 30-year-old Moroccan, is believed to have travelled to Britain with Yarkas, according to the London-based Daily Mail tabloid, which gave no date for the trip.
Police believed that during the visit the pair met Qatada, a Palestinian Islamist cleric who has been described by Garzon as Osama bin Laden's "ambassador in Europe", the Daily Mail said.
Qatada, 43, was arrested in October 2002, and is accused by the British government of having ties to al-Qaeda and serving, through his sermons, to inspire some of the September 11 hijackers.
Qatada is now being held in the top security Belmarsh prison in south London under a British anti-terrorism law that allows foreign suspects to be detained indefinitely.
Denies involvement
Qatada, who arrived in Britain in 1993 with his wife and three children, has consistently denied involvement in terrorist activities.
A spokesperson for London's Scotland yard police department would not comment on the reported links between Zougam and Qatada, saying: "We do not discuss issues of terrorism."
The spokesperson said, however, that a small team of British officers had left for Madrid on Monday, where they were working with Spanish police who are investigating last Thursday's blasts at railway stations which killed 201 people.
Meanwhile, London's Evening Standard newspaper reported that at Zougam's home in Madrid, Spanish police had found telephone numbers of Islamic militants, including four al-Qaeda suspects who lived in or visited London.
An unnamed British police source told Wednesday's Guardian newspaper that there were "well established links" between extremists in Britain, Spain and North Africa.
And security sources told The Times daily that it was likely that the main suspects in the Madrid attacks had contacts in the British capital.
However, one source said: "That doesn't mean the Madrid bombings were planned in London. In fact, it's believed the attack was plotted in Madrid itself."
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