Word: maaroufi
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...EUROPEAN UNION The Net Tightens Luck finally ran out for Tarek Maaroufi when Belgian police arrested the terror suspect on evidence he engaged in logistical and recruiting work for al-Qaeda. Maaroufi had avoided arrest despite being repeatedly implicated in recent inquiries. Italy linked Maaroufi to an al-Qaeda cell in Milan that was planning attacks on France, and his name surfaced in several Belgian investigations. Authorities in Brussels finally obtained sufficient evidence to arrest him on charges of membership of a terrorist organization and recruiting for a foreign army, which is illegal in Belgium. Meanwhile, in Britain, police took...
...those successes in cross-border teamwork, however, are some fairly spectacular instances of how the European Union?s vaunted freedom of movement has far outpaced judicial cooperation. After the first arrests in Milan last April, Italian prosecutor Dambruoso issued a warrant for another figure associated with the cell, Tarek Maaroufi, referred to in Italian court papers as one of the "spiritual heads of the Salafist Group with a basic function of indoctrinating recruits." But Maaroufi lives in Belgium as a Belgian citizen, and no European Union country extradites its own citizens. The Belgian authorities contend that the Italians have...
...then, that Maaroufi, a hotly pursued terrorist in Italy, lives freely but under surveillance in Brussels. He heads a nonprofit organization of his own design, "the Institute for the Research and Study of Civilization." He says he researches Islam with funds solicited from Muslims in local mosques. "I am a Belgian citizen, and I respect the Belgian law," he insists. Maaroufi has acknowledged that he has visited the apartment of the arrested Tunisians in Milan, and he told Time he had traveled to Afghanistan last November, "but that doesn?t mean I know bin Laden...
| 1 |