We keep finding more and more of them.
Heathrow worker jailed for links with al-Qaeda
Antony Barnett and Martin Bright
Sunday March 21, 2004
The Observer
A British Muslim linked to the group suspected of carrying out the Madrid and Casablanca bombings worked at Heathrow airport as a manager for an international air company, an Observer investigation can reveal.
Abdulatif Merroun, 42, who was jailed for five years in Morocco last year for his connection with an Islamic extremist group linked to al-Qaeda, was working for a Canadian airline as a site manager at Heathrow in 1998. During this time he met Mohamed al-Fazazi, the spiritual leader of the Moroccan extremist group Salifia Jihadia, and who is linked to the September 11 attacks.
According to Whitehall sources Merroun 'helped' the radical cleric at Heathrow airport.
Merroun, who obtained his British nationality by marrying a British convert to Islam, has dual British and Moroccan nationality. His wife is believed to have reported him missing in June 2002, when he is alleged to have travelled to Tangier in Morocco, and visited Fazazi's radical mosque.
Merroun was arrested last year in an operation conducted by Moroccan security forces against Islamic radicals in the wake of the Casablanca bombings and imprisoned.
When the verdict was announced his wife Fatima Merroun, who lives in west London, claimed he was innocent and had nothing to do with Salafia Jihadia.'My husband wanted to bring his own witnesses to prove that he had nothing to do with this group ... and they refused it,' she said. Her husband had acted as an informal interpreter once for Fazazi at Heathrow, she said, adding that she was planning to launch a campaign in Britain to have him freed. Security sources said that Merroun 'did not feature' as a terror suspect.
Human rights groups have criticised the Moroccan court's failure to test police evidence against the suspects in court by calling witnesses. It is also claimed that after the Casablanca bombings the authorities arrested 'everyone with a beard'.
However, the revelation that a British Muslim who allegedly had connections with an Islamic extremist group linked to al-Qaeda terror attacks could get security clearance at Britain's biggest airport will once again raise fears about the safety of Heathrow from terrorist attack.
Jon Phillips, director of communications for Heathrow airport, said: 'If the guy has those connections it would be a matter for police and Scotland Yard, not for us. I certainly haven't been made aware of any direct link, of anybody with a Heathrow past being involved in any incident you're talking about.'
Until now it has not been known that Fazazi travelled to Britain, where he toured radical mosques lecturing on jihad (holy war).
Fazazi is accused of being the inspiration behind last May's bombing of Jewish and Spanish targets in Casablanca, which left 45 dead. Spanish investigators have linked his movement with the Madrid bombings 10 days ago. German investigators also claim Fazazi preached at the Al Quds mosque in Hamburg, which was used by the terrorists responsible for the September 11 atrocities.
Fazazi, who urged followers in videos circulated across Europe to 'slit the throat of Jews and Christians' is now serving a 30-year prison sentence in Morocco.
Spanish police have linked his spiritual movement to the Madrid atrocities. In 2001 investigators examining extremist groups linked to al-Qaeda in Spain recorded telephone calls between him and Jamal Zougam, 30, the prime suspect in the Madrid bombings which killed 202 people.
It has also emerged that another Moroccan extremist convicted of the Casablanca bombings was a regular visitor to London. According to European security sources Salaheddine Benyaich, also known as Abu Muhgen, who was a veteran jihadi in Bosnia and Chechnya travelled in and out of Britain between 1997 and 2000 on a stolen British passport. He also spent four months in a British jail for immigration offences. He disappeared in 2001 before re-emerging in his homeland.
As the investigation into the Madrid bombings continue to focus on the role played by Zougam, it has been reported he made visits to a number of north African Islamists in London including Mohammed al-Gerbouzi, a British-based radical who is accused by the Moroccan authorities of being the head of an Islamic militant group. |
