JEDDAH, 22 January — A Saudi national wanted by the United States for suspected Al-Qaeda links may have died in Afghanistan three years ago and a videotape used by the FBI to identify him appears a few years old, his relatives were quoted as saying yesterday.
The newspaper Al-Watan quoted the family of Khalid ibn Muhammad Al-Juhani as casting doubt on US assertions that the suspects were involved in planning terrorist attacks.
According to the newspaper, Ziyab Mueish Al-Juhani, Khalid’s maternal uncle, said the family was convinced he was killed after it received an international telephone call three years ago offering condolences.
The family had said Khalid, who would be 27 now, left for Afghanistan six years ago. Khalid’s father, Muhammad, said Khalid left without his approval.
"Since then, we have received several anonymous calls from people, who refused to give their names and who described themselves as ‘Khalid’s brothers in Islam’, offering condolences," the father was quoted as saying.
"I have no doubt that had he been alive, he would have called, at least once during all those years," he added.
Official documents obtained by Al-Watan showed Khalid had been registered in 1995 as a muezzin, or one who calls Muslims to prayer, in a Madinah mosque.
Al-Juhani was one of five suspects shown on a videotape and in photos released by the FBI last week as part of a public appeal for help in tracking down terrorists.
US authorities said they didn’t know where the men are or whether they were killed in the war in Afghanistan.
The videotape was recovered recently in Afghanistan from the rubble of the home of Mohammad Atef, believed to have been the military chief of Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network. The US blames Al-Qaeda for the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington. Atef was killed by a US air strike in November.
US Attorney General John Ashcroft said the government tentatively had identified four of the men as Khalid ibn Muhammad Al-Juhani, Abd Al-Rahim, Muhammad Sa’id Ali Hasan and Ramzi Binalshibh. The fifth man’s identity was not known.
Ashcroft said little was known about any of them except Binalshibh, a Yemeni whom officials allege was an associate of the Sept. 11 suicide hijacker Mohammed Atta.
The tape was released without sound, but Ashcroft said it showed "martyrdom messages from suicide terrorists." He said the men are "suspected of planning additional attacks against innocent civilians."
Al-Juhani’s family said it had doubts about the videotape’s content.
"It did not carry any evidence about its date and also we did not see anything that contained a threat," the father said.
Al-Juhani’s paternal uncle, Hamid, said that Khalid’s appearance in the tape "showed no change in complexion ... He looked just like when he left ... in his early 20s, not someone approaching 30."
The father disputed comments from unidentified family members quoted earlier as saying Khalid had mental problems stemming from the pressures of war, saying there was no change in his personality.
