Alleged Bin Laden Accomplice Subject of German Probe Since 1996: Report

Alleged Bin Laden Accomplice Subject of German Probe Since 1996: Report

Agence France Presse
October 28, 2001

German authorities had been on the trail of an alleged accomplice of suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden since 1996 on suspicion of money laundering, news weekly Der Spiegel reported in a report due to appear Monday.

Federal police had launched a probe against Syrian-born German businessman Mamoud Darkazanli and four other suspects based on charges brought by the public prosecutor's office in the western city of Frankfurt, Der Spiegel reported.

The report said the group was considered to have close ties even at that time to Bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network, which is suspected of having carried out the September 11 terrorist attacks which devastated the United States. Spiegel said Darkazanli, a Syrian-born German businessman, had the power of attorney for a bank account of Bin Laden's finance chief, Mamduh Mahmud Salim, in 1996.

When Salim was arrested two years later in the southern German city of Munich, German federal police approached chief federal prosecutor Kay Nehm for permission to open an investigation against Darkazanli.

Nehm rejected the request due to lack of evidence, according to the report.

A spokeswoman for Nehm declined to comment on the article but referred to a statement made by another spokesman for the federal prosecutor, quoted by Der Spiegel, saying the information presented was "known".

Federal police declined to comment on the report, calling it a matter for the Frankfurt public prosecutor's office. No one there was available for comment.

Earlier this month, federal police announced that prosecutors had opened a new investigation against Syrian businessman in Hamburg without giving his name.

Darkazanli's Hamburg-based Import-Export Company is on a list of suspect organizations with alleged links to terrorism drawn up by Washington whose assets in the United States have been frozen.

The German government on October 2 announced a freeze on 214 suspected bank accounts, including that of Darkazanli.

Der Spiegel had reported earlier this month that German authorities suspected Darkazanli of providing financial and logistical support to the "Hamburg kamikazes" -- three of the US attack hijackers who studied in a technical college in the northern German city.

Darkazanli denied any connection with Bin Laden in an interview last month with Financial Times Deutschland but said he had had contact with Mamduh Mahmud Salim.

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