Pakistan hands over al-Qaeda suspect to US: spokesman
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Islamabad, June 6, IRNA
Pakistan-US-Al-Qaeda
Pakistan said on Monday that a top al-Qaeda suspect Abu Farraj al-Libbi, who was wanted for two assassination attempts against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has been handed over to the United States.
Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani confirmed remarks by President General Musharraf in an Arab newspaper on Monday that al-Libbi had been handed over.
"The president made a statement to this effect. The president's statement was self-explanatory," Jilani told the weekly press briefing in Islamabad.
The spokesman did not given any further details.
Al-Libbi was projected as al-Qaeda's No. 3 leader, but some al-Qaeda experts say he was not on the FBI list of the world's most-wanted men.
He was arrested on May 2 from Mardan, a town in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province.
President Musharraf in an interview with CNN on May 31 said that Pakistan would hand al-Libbi to the United States.
In an interview with United Arab Emirates daily al-Ittihad the Pakistani president confirmed that Abu Farraj has been handed over to the US.
"Yes, we turned Abu Farraj al-Libbi over to the United States recently, and we don't want people like him in our country," Musharraf was quoted as saying.
Al-Libbi was wanted in Pakistan for what the officials said was masterminding two attempts on Musharraf's life in December 2003.
Some Pakistani ministers had hinted that Abu Farraj will not be handed over to the United States.
TK/TSH/2322/1432
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
