10/02/2013 00:00
TW
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THE Muslim community in Majorca is showing its “full support” for Algerian Ahmed Brahim, a former Palma resident arrested nearly two years ago for alleged links to the Al Qaeda terrorist group. They have presented a judge with a petition backed by 600 signatures, requesting his release. “It is unjust for Ahmed Brahim to be held in prison,” a representative of the Muslim community said yesterday. “We believe in his innocence, and that is why we are with him. Being a Muslim is not synonymous with terrorist,” he added.
Brahim is accused of collaborating with Al Qaeda, and was kept in solitary confinement at the Soto del Real jail for eight months.
He has since been moved to Alcalá Meco in Madrid, “but he is still living a nightmare,” according to his wife Pyrja. “Ahmed hasn't done any of the things he is accused of,” she said yesterday, adding “it is incredible that he should still be in jail even though there is no proof against him.” His lawyer claims that there are various “gaps” in the judicial process against his client, as the information sent to the United States to prove his alleged links with a terrorist responsible for bombing the US Embassy in Tanzania “did not come to any conclusion in this sense.” The lawyer said that appeals would be presented to the Human Rights Commission in the Council of Europe and the UN Commission in Geneva.
He added that they would also sue the media which published the state of Brahim's bank accounts.
A National Court judge ordered him to be remanded in custody in 2002 for belonging to Al Qaeda. He is alleged to have provided accommodation for a Bin Laden lieutenant in his flat in Palma on two occasions, the last being in September 1998. He is also accused of having supplied the finance to carry out the attacks on the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.