The Cypriot authorities have handed over to foreign intelligence agencies a list of 20 Arabs who trained as pilots in Cyprus between 1997 and 1998, a local newspaper reported Thursday.
The list of Arab people who trained to fly light aircraft at private schools on the island was passed on to see whether the students then went on to train on bigger planes in Europe or the United States, said daily Alithia.
The newspaper reported that there was also a probe to see whether the names were in some way connected to the hijackers who took control of the planes that smashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11.
In a response to the report the government told AFP it was "unaware" of
any list.
"We don't know about any list handed to anybody or whether there is such a list," government spokesman Michalis Papapetrou told AFP -- NICOSIA (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
