A man suspected of Al Qaeda links has been detained after arriving at Manila airport from Saudi Arabia and may have been handed over to U.S. officials, Philippine immigration officials said Friday. The man, identified by the officials as Saudi Arabian national Abdullah Nassar al-Arifi, 34, appears on an FBI list of terror suspects, and may have links to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States as well as the 2002 bombings in Bali, Indonesia, the officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
He was detained shortly after arriving on a Philippine Airlines flight from the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Wednesday, the officials said. An immigration official said U.S. federal agents took custody of the suspect, but other officials said he was still being held by the Philippine immigration bureau and that U.S. officials were taking part in an investigation. No other details were immediately available. The U.S. Embassy did not comment on the case. Immigration Commissioner Alipio Fernandez said Abdullah Nassar al-Arifi, 34, whose name was on a blacklist of individuals with possible terrorist links, was detained upon disembarking from a commercial flight from Riyadh on Wednesday. However, Fernandez said Nassar al-Arifi was turned over to the Saudi ambassador yesterday after Bureau of Immigration investigators failed to find any evidence against him.
Immigration officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that Nassar al-Arifi appears on a US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) list of terror suspects. An investigation which included FBI agents failed to link him to terrorism, the officials added. An immigration official said Nassar al-Arifi would be deported to Saudi Arabia because his name was on the FBI list. |