Posted on 11/21/2004 8:24:49 AM PST by knighthawk
BERLIN: Germany has quietly freed from jail an ex-bodyguard of Osama bin Laden who testified against fellow militants, and is talking to Washington about removing him from a UN terror watch list, sources close to the case say. Shadi Abdalla was released earlier this month, his lawyer confirmed, after serving just under a year of a 4-year sentence for planning attacks on Jewish targets in Germany.
His short jail term was a reward for turning informant and testifying against others still on trial for the plot, which was allegedly driven by al-Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The problem for German authorities is that Abdalla, who fears for his life, remains on a United Nations terror sanctions list. Any financial support as part of a witness protection programme would technically violate international law.
The German foreign ministry had no comment on a report in Der Spiegel magazine’s online edition that Washington wanted to question Abdalla before agreeing to back his removal from the list.
A diplomatic source said a Berlin counter-terrorism official was in Washington this week to discuss Abdalla. "There are talks going on," the diplomat said. A State Department spokeswoman said Washington did not comment on ongoing cases.
The Jordanian’s lawyer, Ruediger Deckers, told Reuters it was fair to assume Abdalla was living under a new identity. He was satisfied Germany was doing all it could to protect him. But he said there was a "collision of duties" between the state’s obligations towards Abdalla and the U N sanction rules.
Abdalla, 28, is listed on a UN sanctions Web site among "individuals belonging to or associated with" al-Qaeda.
The tall Jordanian, who had lived in Germany since the mid-1990s, said he travelled to Afghanistan and briefly became bin Laden’s bodyguard after meeting a relative of the al-Qaeda leader during a trip to Saudi Arabia. He returned to Germany after leaving Afghanistan in May 2001.
Ping
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