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October 30, 2005
Australia: Sydney Muslim Linked to al Zarqawi
Australian citizen Saleh Jamal, from Sydney, has been linked to Iraqi terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, states the Australian. Jamal, who is awaiting trial on terrorist charges, has been linked in court documents to al-Zarqawi, whose group he tried to join in April last year.
Prosecution papers also reveal allegations that he was sent abroad by an Australian Islamists, with the intention of staging jihad offensives against US and Israeli interests.
His attempt to join al-Zarqawi was foiled by Jordanian officials, who barred him entry to their country. Saleh Jamal is said to have been introduced to Zarqawi's network, "Al Qaeda of the Two Rivers" through a Bosnian associate whom he met in Lebanon, called Abdullah Taratshebak. This man, and another accused terrorist called Abdul Latif, attempted with Jamal to enter Iraq via Jordan.
The Lebanese prosecutors claim that the Sydney Islamist (whose identity has been concealed) was helped by another Australian, Ashref Shaha, who gave him money. After Jamal was accused of shooting up Lakemba police station in Sydney in 1998, he jumped bail, using the donated money to flee.
In May 2004, Jamal was arrested at Beirut airport as he tried to board a plane to Paris, and was charged for entering Lebanon on a false passport. He was given a five year jail sentence for this offence, but Lebanese prosecutors want him charged now on more serious terrorism charges. They want to try him for delivering material to Islamists who carried out a bomb assault in Damascus, Syria, two weeks prior to his arrest. The attack near an embassy compound cost two people their lives.
It is claimed that Jamal's Islamic radicalism occurred in a New South Wales jail as he was awaiting trial. It is assumed that his links with al-Zarqawi's group were forged through associations with an associate group based in a Palestinian refugee camp, called Asbat al-Ansar.
Saleh Jamal goes on trial in Lebanon next week.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at October 30, 2005 11:29 AM
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