PARIS, 23 October — French police say that with the arrest at Marseilles of Lazahr Ben Mohamed Tlilli they have captured a key figure in the Al-Qaeda terrorist network. Tlilli was arrested on Oct. 14. He had in his possession evidences that revealed his close links with the Al-Qaeda hierarchy. He also made frequent trips to Afghanistan where he is alleged to have met with the entourage of Osama Bin Laden.
Tipped off as to his presence in France by Italian police authorities, who ten days ago in conjunction with the FBI arrested on Italian soil several other key members of Al-Qaeda, Tlilli was turned over for questioning to Judge Jean-Francois Ricard.
Ricard, one of the principal French anti-terrorist magistrates, decided on Monday to place Tlilli under examination, a preliminary phase to his being placed under indictment.
Besides being suspected by French judicial authorities of being an important intermediary between Afghanistan and the Milan-based Italian Al-Qaeda network, Tlilli is also said by French police sources to have been in touch with an important French Al-Qaeda group that in December 2000 was allegedly preparing to undertake a major terrorist attack upon Strasbourg, the eastern French city that is also the seat of the European Parliament.
Investigators say they do not know yet whether the attack was to have been on the city’s magnificent twelfth-century cathedral, one of the tallest (at 142 meters) in the world, or the popular Christmas market, which is set up annually near the cathedral, and where the attack would have resulted in numerous deaths.
Police interrogators say that they will be interrogating Tlilli with regard to his involvement in the planned attack on Strasbourg, but that they also would like to elucidate his links with the Al-Qaeda hierarchy in Afghanistan, especially as they were able to seize in his possession an address book that, they say, contains the details of several visits he made to Afghanistan, but also the names and contact information for a number of important personages in the entourage of Bin Laden.
