LUSAKA, 30 July 2005 — Zambia has arrested Briton Haroon Rashid Aswad, linked in media reports to an attempt to set up a militant training camp in the United States and to the July 7 London bombings, Interpol and US officials said.
The international police organization said yesterday it had notified member states of an arrest warrant for Aswad on behalf of the United States, which led to his detention in Zambia.
A senior Zambian intelligence source told Reuters a British man of Asian descent was arrested in Livingstone, 400 km (250 miles) south of the capital Lusaka, shortly after entering Zambia from Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.
“A British citizen has been arrested in Livingstone... in connection with the London bombings. The man has been on the wanted list of British anti-terrorist authorities,” the source told Reuters.
Aswad was being held at Lusaka’s central prison yesterday, and would likely be extradited, but it was not clear whether he would be sent to the United States or Britain, the source said.
“The British government wants Aswad to be extradited to Britain because it does not normally want its citizens to be extradited to countries that have the death penalty on their statute books, like is the case in some states of the United States,” the Zambian source said.
“But then the hitch is that Britain and Zambia do not have an extradition treaty, and so the US is likely to prevail over Britain,” the source added. Zambia has an extradition treaty with the United States.
Media reports have linked Aswad to the July 7 bomb attacks in London, and US media have reported he is also wanted by Washington over accusations he tried to set up a terrorist training camp in the US state of Oregon.
A British security source in London said Aswad seemed to be of more interest to US investigators than the team investigating the London bombings, which killed 56 people including the four bombers.
“Aswad appears to be of great significance to the Americans,” the British source said. “We have not sent officers to Zambia and we are not planning to but we are keeping an eye on what’s going on there. He’s not on the top of the list of those to be interviewed.”
A US official said last week there was no proven link between Aswad and the London bombings, though there were suspicions he may have been involved, as well as possibly being implicated in a British police investigation last year, dubbed “Operation Crevice,” into a suspected bombing plot in London.
“There’s no definitive link established between this guy and the bombings in London. But is he bad news? Yes. Does he have a British connection? Yes. Might he have had some involvement in that Operation Crevice? Yes,” the US official said last week.
“All these things point and make him someone who might have insight into this, who might have had a role in this. But it’s not proved yet.” Lyn Shaw, duty officer at the British High Commission in Lusaka, told Reuters they had been informed their citizen was arrested but declined to give further details.
“We are now seeking consular access to the British citizen detained here in Lusaka to interview him and then we will give details later,” Shaw said.
