Five suspected al-Qaeda members, whose extradtion had been blocked by the high court here, have now left Malawi for an undisclosed location, a government official said on Wednesday.
The United States had reportedly been pressing for the deportation of the five, arrested in Blantyre on Saturday in a joint operation by Malawi’s National Intelligence Bureau and the US Central Intelligence Agency.
Malawi’s director of public prosecutions, Fahad Assani, refused on Wednesday to disclose when the five Muslim foreigners had left Malawi, but he denied that they had been deported.
”This is a serious security issue and we don’t want to leave trails,” he said, but confirmed that the five were no longer in the custody of Malawi authorities.
On Tuesday a high court here ordered that the five had to be brought to court or released on bail.
They were suspected of being members of Osama bin Laden’s extremist network.
The five — who include a Kenyan, a Sudanese, a Saudi and two Turkish nationals — were all legally resident in Malawi and engaged in businesses here, as well as teaching at Islamic schools.
Assani said Monday that the US government had given reasons to the Malawi government why it wanted them deported, but he declined to say why.
But a spokesperson for the US embassy in Malawi on Monday denied any US role in moves to deport the five. – Sapa-AFP