Posted on 10/16/2002 3:43:58 PM PDT by knighthawk
BRUSSELS -- A Belgian court extended Tuesday the detention of a 35-year-old Moroccan accused in connection with the killing last year of the Afghan anti-Taleban commander Ahmad Shah Masood, officials said.
The suspect, whose identity has not been officially revealed, was arrested on October 8 in Antwerp and has been charged with complicity in the September 2001 killing of the Afghan opposition leader, a spokesman as said.
The Brussels court extended his detention warrant by a month pending an investigation into an operation to provide false passports, AFP quoted prosecution spokesman Jos Colpin as saying.
Belgian press reports have named the suspect as Ahmed Ellattah, and said he has family ties with Mohamed Sliti, a Belgian national suspected of having helped arrange the trips by Masood's two killers to Afghanistan.
According to the daily La Derniere Heure, Ellattah has denied any involvement in the plot, although he has admitted that he knew some of those implicated.
Masood, a charismatic fighter who led the Northern Alliance coalition fighting the Taleban regime, was killed by two suicide bombers posing as journalists.
His assassination came just two days before the September 11 attacks in the United States, which sparked U.S. reprisals that led to the ousting of the Taleban late last year.
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