Man Who Helped Abssi Escape Arrested, Fatah Islam Detainees Handed Over to U.N. Commission
Lebanese authorities arrested the person who helped Fatah al-Islam leader Shaker Abssi escape while the judiciary handed over a number of detainees from the terrorist group to the U.N. commission investigating ex-Premier Rafik Hariri”s assassination.
News reports on Monday said Lebanese detainee Ahmed Itir has revealed to investigators the name of the man, also a Lebanese, who helped Abssi cross the border into Syria.
They said that person, who is still undergoing interrogation, has confessed to having helped Abssi escape in a white Mitsubishi van.
Sources following the probe said investigators are now convinced that Abssi was at the northern Palestinian refugee camp of Beddawi at the knowledge of Sheikh Hamza Qassem.
Qassem, the Palestinian Imam of Beddawi camp”s Quds Mosque, has been arrested on terrorism charges.
He has testified to investigators to having hosted Abssi upon his escape from nearby Nahr al-Bared camp more than a year ago.
Abssi spent nearly one month at the sheikh”s residence, then moved to a hideout in Beddawi camp where he stayed for months, according to Qassem.
According to information obtained by LBC television, Abssi was hiding at a security-controlled quarter of Ahmed Jebril”s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, a pro-Syrian Palestinian faction.
It said detainee Itir, who is known as Abu Abdo, has given investigators details about Abssi”s escape through the Bekaa Valley into Syrian territory.
Asharq al-Awsat daily said for its part said that the PFLP-GC was the party that helped Abssi escape.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Security Force at Beirut”s Shatilla camp handed over to Lebanese authorities an extremist clergyman known for his links with Fatah al-Islam and al-Qaida.
The cleric, identified as Sheikh Jamal, a mosque imam, was known to have played a role in recruiting terrorists. He is also accused of provocation against the Lebanese army.
Future TV, meanwhile, said the Lebanese judiciary has turned over more than one Fatah al-Islam member to the U.N. commission investigating Hariri”s assassination and related crimes.
It said an automatic rifle was found with one detainee that was said to have been used in the assassination of cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel.
As Safir newspaper, for its part, quoted a Palestinian source as saying that Syrian security authorities had dismantled about 16 terror networks with links to al-Qaida and other extremist groups.