AFP, July 26, 2001
Bosnia Arrests Three Suspected Bin Laden's Associates
SARAJEVO, Jul 26, 2001 -- (AFP) Three men believed to
be linked to Saudi extremist Osama Bin Laden, who is on the U.S.'s
most-wanted list, were arrested in Sarajevo last week, local media reported on
Thursday.
The three, one of whom was identified as Imad El Misri, are Egyptian nationals,
Oslobodjenje independent daily quoted unidentified police sources as saying.
The paper said two of the suspects were also holding Bosnian passports.
Police could not immediately confirm the information but said they would issue a
press statement later in the day.
Bin Laden, who lives in Afghanistan, is on the U.S. Federal Bureau of
Investigation's 10-most-wanted list, accused of the bombing of the U.S.
embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, which killed 224 people and injured
thousands.
Oslobodjenje said the three men were arrested last Thursday in the Sarajevo
suburb of Ilidza, where they had settled after coming to Bosnia during the
country's 1992-95 war to fight alongside the government's mainly Muslim
forces.
The arrest, carried out by police from Bosnia's Muslim-Croat Federation, was
requested by the United States, Oslobodjenje said.
One of the suspects would soon be extradited to the United States while the
other two were to be handed over to French and Egyptian authorities, who
want them for crimes committed in their countries, it said.
The Dayton peace agreement that ended Bosnia's war ordered all foreign
soldiers to leave the country, including those who fought alongside the mainly
Muslim government army.
But an undisclosed number have remained, obtaining Bosnian citizenship as
members of the army or by marrying Bosnian women.
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