Bin Laden maintains accounts in Cyprus
Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Tuesday, April 10, 2001
NICOSIA — The Russian mafia does it. So does deposed President
Slobodan Milosevic.
Now, fugitive Saudi billionaire Osama Bin Laden joins the club of those
who keep their money in the Republic of Cyprus.
Cypriot sources said Bin Laden's group maintains bank accounts in
Nicosia. Bin Laden also uses Cyprus as a transit point to export Sudanese
exports, such as peanuts, to Europe.
The state-run CyBC television said the assertion came in testimony by a
Sudanese defendant in the trial of Bin Laden aides in New York. Jamat Ahmet
Alfato told the U.S. district court in Manhattan that a Bin Laden
front company, Arketa, deposited income from its Sudanese operations in
Cyprus. Arketa was founded in 1989.
Alfato asserted that his company bought weapons for Bin Laden operations
in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United States and Yemen. Cyprus might have also
been a target.
The Cypriot state television said Alfato's testimony was discussed
between Washington and Nicosia. Cyprus has been identified as a leading
location for money-laundering by organized crime.
Cypriot authorities said they are investigating the reports of Bin
Laden's bank accounts.
In Los Angeles, another suspected Bin Laden aide was convicted in a U.S.
district court of a 1999 plot to bomb targets in the United States. Ahmed
Ressam faces 130 years in prison.
Tuesday, April 10, 2001
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