Mexico clears man with alleged terror ties

Mexico decided to release a Lebanese-born British citizen after his arrest for alleged ties to terrorists, saying he had done nothing wrong.

Federal investigators said Amer Haykel was detained in the western state of Baja California Sur on Monday after US authorities provided information he was linked to extremist groups believed to be tied to the September 11 attacks.

But in a statement released late last night, Mexico’s National Immigration Institute said it had confirmed that Haykel “doesn’t represent any threat to national security, nor is he wanted by authorities in any country”.

The statement said Haykel was in the process of being released from a Mexico City detention centre. Mexican newspapers and television stations reported he had been freed.

Haykel was detained based on “an exchange of information with US authorities” and “in the context of a strategy of border security between Mexico and the US, based on the minimisation of risks for national security of both countries”, the statement said.

Before his arrest, Haykel spent several days in the tourist resort of Cabo San Lucas, sleeping in a local fire station, according to those who met him. He told acquaintances he was a pilot who was wandering the world on a tight budget.

Haykel was arrested at the volunteer fire station of Todos Santos, a small town on the Pacific coast about 35 miles north-west of Cabo San Lucas that is known as a haven for US expatriates.

The state office of the federal attorney general’s office said Haykel had spent time in the Cancun area on the Caribbean coast before going to north-western Mexico, initially to the state of Sonora and then across the Gulf of California to Baja California Sur.

Officials have long expressed concerns terrorists might use Mexico or Central America to stage an attack on the US.

Since the September 11 attacks, there have been a series of arrests and reports – from Panama to the Mexico-US border – indicating terrorists might be in the region. But so far, there has been little hard evidence that anyone was linked to al-Qaida or other terrorist groups.