Cypriot authorities are investigating claims that alleged terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden has secret bank accounts on the island which he uses to run weapons.
"I have ordered the island's special money laundering unit to investigate," Attorney General Alecos Markides told state radio, while stressing there was no evidence to back the allegations.
Jamal Ahmed al-Fadl, a former Bin Laden associate who became a US informant, testified in February before a federal court in New York that Bin Laden's network had set up accounts in Cyprus, believing it to be a safe base from which to buy and transport weapons and other supplies.
But Markides said Fadl may have meant Bin Laden's group deposited money in Turkish northern Cyprus, which has been separated from the Greek-dominated south of the island since Turkey's 1974 invasion.
Cyprus has long been alleged as a haven for state funds pilfered by ousted Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic and in the early 1990s the island was blacklisted by the United States for its initial reluctance to tackle the accusations.
Cypriot authorities decided to investigate the Bin Laden negotiations after pressure from Washington, the Cypriot newspaper Alithia said Sunday.
Bin Laden, a Saudi dissident believed to be hiding in Saudi Arabia, is wanted by Washington in connection with the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania which left 220 people dead -- NICOSIA (AFP) -
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
