ROME – Two former Guantanamo detainees who will be tried in Italy on terrorism charges have been linked to an Islamic center in Milan described by U.S. authorities as al-Qaida’s main station house in Europe before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, officials said Tuesday.
Adel Ben Mabrouk, 39, and Mohamed Ben Riadh Nasri, 43, of Tunisia, arrived in Italy late Monday, and were immediately taken into custody upon arrival in Milan. Both men are accused of being members of a terror group with ties to al-Qaida and of recruiting fighters for Afghanistan, officials said.
Nasri spoke with prosecutors past midnight, and Mabrouk will be questioned in the next few days.
“He was heard, more than interrogated,” attorney Roberto Novellino said of Nasri. “Physically he’s fine, just tired because the trip was long.” He said Nasri discussed why he was sent to Guantanamo and the circumstances of his transfer there.
Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Tuesday that Washington has asked Italy to take in more Guantanamo detainees and given a list of names which Rome is studying.
Premier Silvio Berlusconi promised President Barack Obama at a White House meeting in June that Italy would accept three people as part of the U.S. administration’s bid to close down the Guantanamo prison.
Frattini declined to give any details about the third detainee’s identity or arrival date. But he said Italy has agreed “to take in others. They gave us a list of names, which we are examining one by one.”
So far, “we haven’t pinpointed yet” which detainees Italy would take, Frattini said.
Italy took in the Tunisians as a “concrete political sign” of Italy’s commitment to help the U.S. close Guantanamo, Justice Minister Angelino Alfano said in a statement late Monday.
Prosecutors said that two collaborators in Italy’s witness protection program have given statements on the two Tunisians. Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said he wants them to be put on trial and convicted quickly.
According to prosecutors, a lawyer and a transcript obtained by The Associated Press, both men frequented an Islamic center in Milan in the 1990s that a U.S. Treasury report at the time labeled as “the main al-Qaida station house in Europe.”
Lazhar Ben Mohamed Tlil, a key prosecution witness, said Nasri, known by his alias Abou Doujana, was head of an organization of Tunisians at a camp in Afghanistan where recruits received both ideological and military training. It was at this camp, the witness said, that he and other recruits were taught that “to kill infidels was the duty of every Muslim” and were prepared to carry out suicide attacks.
Tlil was recently questioned by U.S. investigators and identified from photos fellow Tunisian trainees in the Afghan camps, his court-appointed lawyer, Davide Boschi, told the AP.
Nasri had previously fought in Bosnia, according to the witness.
An Italian prosecutor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Mabrouk and Nasri traveled from Italy to Afghanistan and, once there, maintained a “functional relationship inside the organization” of Tunisians here to recruit fighters for suicide missions.
Nasri was allegedly the head of the organization and was described by the U.S. military as a “dangerous” Tunisian operative when he appeared before a U.S. military review panel.
Obama confirmed last month that he would miss his January deadline to close the Guantanamo prison — partly because he cannot persuade other nations to take the detainees.
The U.S. administration says about 90 of the estimated 210 men now held at the U.S. military base can be released or repatriated. But Washington still has to figure out where it will try 40 to 60 prisoners suspected of terrorism and where to relocate dozens more it wants to continue to holding without charge because it lacks the evidence to try them but fears their release.
The U.S. alleged that Nasri traveled to Afghanistan, via Italy and Pakistan, and trained at an al-Qaida-linked camp. He fled from Jalalabad, Afghanistan, when it fell to the Northern Alliance and was wounded in the U.S. bombing of the Tora Bora area, where he was captured and turned over to American forces.
Nasri also had alleged links to Muslim fighters in Bosnia as well as Algerian militants, officials said in documents released after he appeared at the military panel. He was also previously convicted in Italy for passing counterfeit money, and was convicted in Tunisia of being a member of a terrorist organization and sentenced to 10 years, the documents said.
He told the U.S. military that he did not belong to a Tunisian Islamist group, much less head one, and denies ever trying to overthrow the Tunisian government.
In Italy, Nasri is accused along with eight other people of criminal association, aiding illegal immigration and terrorism charges stemming from 1997-2001.
Mabrouk had been held without charge at Guantanamo since February 2002.
He lived in Italy before traveling to Afghanistan in early 2001, according to the transcript of his hearing before the U.S. military panel that reviewed his case. U.S. authorities alleged he had links to al-Qaida and trained at one its camps. The U.S. also alleged he had previously associated with extremists in Bosnia and had been sentenced to 20 years in prison in Tunisia for being a member of a terrorist organization.
Mabrouk’s 2005 arrest warrant in Italy accuses him of international terrorism, falsification of documents, aiding illegal immigration, theft and drug trafficking. He is alleged to have been part of a group affiliated with the Milan mosque that provided logistical and financial support for recruiting fighters for Iraq.
Mabrouk was captured on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border by Pakistani forces and turned over to the U.S.
He told the U.S. military panel that he only went to Afghanistan as an immigrant and did receive some weapons training but denied ever being in Bosnia or knowing about any prison sentence in Tunisia, according to U.S. military documents.
___
Associated Press writers Colleen Barry, Nicole Winfield and Frances D’Emilio contributed to this report.
