RIYADH, 6 April 2003 — The German Foreign Office has confirmed the detention of a German national in Saudi Arabia. He was allegedly involved in a terrorist attack on a Tunisian synagogue last year which killed 21 people, including 14 German tourists.
The German national has been identified as Christian Ganczarski, a Muslim sometimes known as Abu Ibrahim. Ganczarski, 36, who is also wanted in the US, was arrested in the Kingdom after Germany provided information to the Saudi government.
The suspect was arrested and questioned by German authorities before coming to Saudi Arabia.
The German Embassy in Riyadh declined to comment when contacted by Arab News.
Germany and Saudi Arabia currently have no extradition treaty, but local sources said that the Kingdom and Germany were cooperating on this issue. The German federal prosecutor’s office said it did not have sufficient evidence to hold the suspect. It also said that it had no legal grounds to block him from going to Saudi Arabia.
In the meantime, US authorities are said to be interested in seeking Ganczarski’s extradition to the United States for interrogation about his knowledge of Osama Bin Laden. Ganczarski is believed to have been a frequent guest of Bin Laden at a residential complex of the Al-Qaeda ringleader in Afghanistan.
A report published in “Der Spiegel,” the German weekly magazine, said that the Saudi government had not responded to German demands to allow its investigators to continue their probe in Riyadh. The Kingdom and Germany have cooperated with each other generally, and relations between the two countries are very cordial, with Riyadh and Berlin sharing common approaches on regional and international issues.
Germany is home to over 2.3 million Muslims out of a total of 14 million in Western Europe.
About seven other Westerners are currently in detention in Saudi Arabia. They have allegedly been involved in a series of bombings linked to alcohol smuggling during the last three years in which at least one Westerner was killed and several others injured.
In another development, Interior Minister Prince Naif disclosed yesterday that Syria had handed over to the Kingdom 10 Saudis who fought in Afghanistan.
“The men are currently in the Kingdom and have been allowed to meet with their relatives,” Prince Naif told reporters.
He did not say when they were handed over, why they had been in Syria or if they were being detained.
The minister denied the presence of Al-Qaeda “sleeping cells” in the Kingdom. He said there were “some people who share the ideology” of Bin Laden but added that their number was decreasing.
He has also announced previously that 90 out of 253 Al-Qaeda suspects had been sent to court on charges of being members of the terror network.
