Terror suspect ‘held incommunicado for month’

29 April 2004

RABAT – A terrorist suspect sought in connection with the Madrid bombings has been under arrest in Morocco for a month without any contact with lawyers, a human rights group claimed Thursday.

The Moroccan Human Rights Association claimed there has been no contact or news of Hicham Ahmidan.

Ahmidan was among six terror suspects named by Spanish authorities in international arrest warrants issued on 26 April.

Their photographs were issued to the media and the public was asked to help catch the suspects. One has already been arrested.

Ahmidan is said to be a relative of Jamal Ahmidan, nicknamed ‘The Chinese’, who was killed when he blew himself up along with six other terrorists in the Leganes suburb of Madrid on 3 April.

The group, which was surrounded by security forces, also killed a police officer who was a member of an elite anti-terror squad.

Jamal Ahmidan was considered the head of logistics of the Islamic extremist group which was said to have masterminded the atrocity in which 192 people were killed and more than 1,500 were injured on 11 March.

The human rights group has asked the Moroccan prime minister to release Ahmidan or allow him to appear in front of a judge “in accordance with Morocco’s commitment to human rights”.

Hicham Ahmidan, who lived in Spain and whose relationship with Jamal Ahmidan is not clear, arrived in Tangiers on 7 March to visit his family, relatives have claimed.

He was arrested on 25 March by police in Tangiers.

Ahmidan’s car and his family’s home were searched by police.

The group claimed the family of Ahmidan “had not heard any news a month after his arrest”.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news