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Muluzi 'regrets' terror arrests
By Raphael Tenthani
BBC Blantyre

The Malawian president has reportedly apologised to the families of five
al-Qaeda suspects who were arrested and whisked out of Malawi, last
month.

Two of the wives of the suspects said on Tuesday that President Bakili
Muluzi had invited them at the weekend and apologised for the
embarrassment caused to their families.

Ella Ulusam, a Malawian, married to one of the Turkish suspects, said
the president was very apologetic and had told her that her husband's
ordeal must be blamed on the Americans.

Last month the suspects' lawyers told a court that they had been taken
away to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to be interrogated by US officials.

However, last week, Sudanese officials said the five, who were later
freed in Khartoum, had never left Africa.
One of the five contacted a local radio station in Malawi on Monday, to
confirm that all of them were alive and well.
Assured
Mrs Ulusam said that the president assured her that her husband was now
free after being found innocent.
The wife of the Sudanese suspect, Sheik Mahmud Sardar Issa, also
confirmed the meeting with the president over the weekend.

Salidali Issa quoted President Muluzi as saying that he was sorry and
surprised that the suspects had been linked to al-Qaeda since he had
known them for the past 10 years.

The five, two Turkish nationals, a Kenyan, a Saudi and one Sudanese -
were arrested in Blantyre last month.
They were said to have been on the CIA watch-list since the 1998 bombing
of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
'Cleared'
Mrs Ulusam told me in the business district of Limbe that her husband
called her from Istanbul, in Turkey, to say that they were kept for 29
days in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, where US and Malawian
intelligence officials eventually cleared them.

They had been taken from Harare to the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, where
they were released to their respective embassies after questioning.

She quoted her husband as saying that they were well treated and in good
health.
The wife of the Kenyan, Sheik Khalifa Abdi Hassan, has already left for
Nairobi.
The other Turkish national, Ibrahim Itabaci and the Saudi, Fahad Ral
Bahli have no families in Malawi.
Justified
President Bakili Muluzi had repeatedly justified the way Malawi handled
the issue, joining forces with American intelligence to arrest the men.

He had stressed that he did not approve of the arrest but acquiesced in
order to please the Americans.
President Muluzi is currently on a tour of northern Malawi.
His aides would not comment on the reported meeting between the women
and the president.
Story from BBC NEWS:

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