Authorities in Pakistan have arrested an Australian, 29, suspected of training with Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist network, the Australian government disclosed Monday.
Attorney General Darryl Williams told reporters in Adelaide that Pakistan advised the Australian High Commission in Islamabad last week that the Australian had been detained in Karachi on January 4. He is the fourth Australian to be detained on suspicion of having links to the al-Qaeda network.
Williams said the man had been sought by Australian law enforcement and intelligence agencies in Pakistan for the past year. He had been identified in a media release in December 2001 as being a Caucasian, then aged 28.
"He is believed, according to movement records, to have left Australia in March 2001," Williams said. "It is alleged that he trained with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan in mid-2001 and for the last year or so has been in Pakistan."
The man was reportedly in good health and foreign affairs officials had informed his family of his detention.
"Through his family, the Australian authorities had been seeking to have the man contact the Australian High Commission in Islamabad but he did not do so," Williams was cited by AFP as saying.
"At this stage he has not been charged to our knowledge, it may well be that he is charged under Pakistan law.
"He is in the same sort of position as anyone else would be who commits a breach of the law in a country in which they are a resident or present", he added. (Albawaba.com)
