Alleged al-Qaida financial mastermind 'just a moderate muslim'

The suspected financial mastermind of an al-Qaida cell accused of helping plot the September 11 attacks depicted himself today as a legitimate businessman and moderate Muslim who once argued angrily with associates over what constituted grounds for holy war.

Syrian-born real estate promoter Mohamed Ghaleb Kalaje Zouaydi is accused of using his business dealings as a front for financing the Spanish cell and funnelling money to Muslim extremists in other countries, including Germany, another staging ground for the suicide airliner attacks of 2001 in the US.

Zouaydi said during trial that one such transfer he made to Germany in 1999 to Mamoun Darkanzali – an alleged al-Qaida member said to be close to the Hamburg cell that plotted and carried out the September 11 attack – was simply for the purchase of a used Mercedes Benz and that the money was returned when the deal fell through.

Zouaydi also said money he sent to an al-Qaida suspect in Yemen, now facing a death sentence for trying to kill the country’s prime minister in 1997, was to settle a debt incurred with that man by Zouaydi’s brother-in-law, whom Spanish authorities say was al-Qaida’s main courier in Europe.

He said he knew the alleged leader of the Spanish al-Qaida cell, Imad Yarkas, and saw him nearly every day, but only because they took their children to the same Muslim school.

Zouaydi recalled arguing angrily in 1999 with Yarkas and another alleged cell member, who said the plight of Chechens and Palestinians were grounds for declaration of jihad, or holy war. Zouaydi said only Muslim clerics could do this, not everyday Muslims. “They said ’you know nothing, you are not a Muslim,”’ he testified.

Zouaydi is among 24 suspects on trial here as alleged members of the Spanish al-Qaida cell.

Three of the suspects, including Yarkas, are accused specifically of using Spain as a staging ground to help plan the September 11 attacks. Zouaydi is among the other 21, who face charges of terrorism, weapons possession or other offences, but not September 11 planning.

Separately, the three-judge panel overseeing the trial rejected a defence request to release on bail a jailed suspect who filmed video of the World Trade Centre in 1997 and allegedly passed on a copy of the tape to al-Qaida operatives.

Lawyers for Ghasoub al-Abrash Ghalyoun had argued the video was the innocent work of a tourist and that excerpts played in court when their client testified on April 27 failed to reveal anything incriminating. But the judges ruled that the trial was still in its early stages, with much more evidence to be presented, and Ghalyoun must remain in jail for now.

Ghalyoun was indicted by a Spanish judge in September 2003, even though the prosecutor in this trial had asked that no charges be filed against him, arguing the video evidence was weak.

In the first testimony of today’s session, alleged cell member Abdalrahman Alarnot, a Syrian-born Spaniard, said he endorsed a fatwa (a ruling issued by an Islamic scholar) issued in March by Spanish Muslims against Osama bin Laden.

Alarnot described himself as a hardworking owner of a construction company and said his dealings with Zouaydi were legitimate, not a front for funnelling money to Islamic extremists, as alleged by prosecutors.

Under questioning from his lawyer, Alarnot said he supported a fatwa issued in March against bin Laden by the Islamic Commission of Spain, the main body representing the country’s million-strong Muslim community.

The fatwa called the al-Qaida leader an enemy of Islam and urged others of their faith to denounce the al-Qaida leader. The commission said it was the world’s first such edict against bin Laden.

Alarnot said today: “I agree with the fatwa of the Islamic Commission of Spain. This is my criterion on terrorism and all acts of violence.”