By IPS Correspondents
BLANTYRE, Jun 24 2003 (IPS)

-Malawi joined the global war on terror with the arrest of five foreign nationals suspected of belonging to the Al Qaeda network.

The men were rounded up at the weekend in the commercial capital Blantyre. Their defence lawyers immediately filed and successfully obtained a High Court injunction preventing the Malawi authorities from deporting the accused to the United States.

The five – Fahad al Bahli, Ibrahim Habaci, Arif Ulusam, Muhammad Salidat Issa and Khalifa Abdi Hassam – are nationals of Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Kenya and Turkey, respectively. They claim to be operating legally registered businesses and Muslim funded charities in the country.

High Court Judge Justice Healy Potani ruled that the five suspects have the constitutional right to be brought in court within 48 hours and charged failing which they will be released on bail.

Defence council, Shabil Latif, told the High Court that the five are legal expatriates working for widely acknowledged institutions based in Blantyre, Chiradzulu and Zomba namely – Islamic Zakaat Fund (IZF), Istanbul Take Away, Bedir International High School, the Prince Sultan Bin Aziz Special Committee and the Muslim Association of Malawi.

He claims that the accused were treated without dignity and were handcuffed, blindfolded and transferred to an unknown destination while awaiting deportation on suspicion that they are members of Al Qaeda.

Latif told the court he had reliable information which indicated that the Malawian government planned to hand over his clients to the Central Intelligence of America who in turn would detain them at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Guantanamo is the infamous island concentration camp where the United States has been keeping all Al Qaeda suspects since the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York.

Latif, who is leading three other defence lawyers, argued that the conduct of the state in arresting and detaining the five was unconstitutional and unlawful as it violated their rights to freedom of movement, and not to be discriminated on grounds of race and country of origin.

Malawian President Bakili Muluzi has deplored the suicide bombing of the twin World Trade Centre towers in New York which has subsequently been blamed on the Osama Bin Laden led Al Qaeda movement whose bases in Afghanistan have been demolished by American forces.

While the hunt for Bin Laden continues to remain unsuccessful since 2001, a number of countries in the region sympathetic to the US cause of thwarting terror, are on the alert.

The arrest of the five comes barely two days after authorities in Kenya – ugly scene of terror attacks in 2000 – suspended flights to neighbouring Sudan for fear of terrorist attacks on US nationals.

But as the rounding up of suspected Al Qaeda operatives continues in many countries there appears to be no trace of their leader, Bin Laden, who is also reputed to have been trained by the CIA. (ENDS/IPS/AF/SA/IP/FP/SM/03)

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