Japanese police arrested five foreigners yesterday after carrying out their first raids in a widening probe of suspected al-Qaeda activities centering on a French national who spent over a year in Japan.
Police searched 10 locations following media reports last week that Lionel Dumont, who was arrested in Germany last December, was trying to build up a base in Japan to support al-Qaeda among a network of foreigners in the country.
Dumont, a French national of Algerian descent, is suspected of being involved in delivering equipment and funds to al-Qaeda during his stay in Japan after entering the country on a false passport in 2002, Japanese media said.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Japan, a close ally of the US, stepped up security at key facilities after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington and has been on heightened alert since a letter purportedly from al-Qaeda said Tokyo would be targeted once Japanese troops set foot in Iraq.
Police said they arrested an Indian, a Malian and three Bangladeshis for violating immigration laws.
The government's top spokesman said he hoped the police action would yield clues about Dumont's activities.
"We have information that an al-Qaeda linked individual ... had contacts with various people in the country and was engaged in certain activities. I hope that the details will be revealed," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda told a news conference.
"What is important for our nation's security is that we prevent an international terrorist organization from operating," Hosoda said.
Wednesday's action involved individuals with connections to Dumont, including a Bangladeshi man who police suspect has links to an Islamic group in Pakistan seeking independence for the Kashmir region, Japanese media said.
Kyodo news agency said the police also wanted to investigate their activities and cash transfers among them.
Referring to the Indian who was arrested, a police official said: "We are aware of reports about his links to the Frenchman and will try to find more about it through our investigation."
Television footage showed police at various buildings, including what were described as the homes of foreign Muslims and the office of a used car sales firm run by one of them.
Dumont, 33, lived in Niigata, northwest of Tokyo, with his German wife from July 2002 until September 2003 and traveled frequently between Japan, Malaysia and Germany, using the forged passport, media said.
Government spokesman Hosoda said he regretted that passport controls at the time failed to catch Dumont, adding that the government will review and tighten them.
Dumont made some 45 deposits and withdrawals, each involving several hundred thousand yen (?100,000 is about US$900), in a one-month period after he entered Japan in 2002, media reports have said.
Working with Pakistani colleagues, Dumont sold used cars to Russia and North Korea during his stay in Niigata, the Asahi Shimbun said.
A beauty queen who pulled out of the Miss South Africa competition when her nationality was questioned has said she wants to relocate to Nigeria, after coming second in the Miss Universe pageant while representing the West African country. Chidimma Adetshina, whose father is Nigerian, was crowned Miss Universe Africa and Oceania and was runner-up to Denmark’s Victoria Kjar Theilvig in Mexico on Saturday night. The 23-year-old law student withdrew from the Miss South Africa competition in August, saying that she needed to protect herself and her family after the government alleged that her mother had stolen the identity of a South
BELT-TIGHTENING: Chinese investments in Cambodia are projected to drop to US$35 million in 2026 from more than US$420 million in 2021 At a ceremony in August, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet knelt to receive blessings from saffron-robed monks as fireworks and balloons heralded the breaking of ground for a canal he hoped would transform his country’s economic fortunes. Addressing hundreds of people waving the Cambodian flag, Hun Manet said China would contribute 49 percent to the funding of the Funan Techo Canal that would link the Mekong River to the Gulf of Thailand and reduce Cambodia’s shipping reliance on Vietnam. Cambodia’s government estimates the strategic, if contentious, infrastructure project would cost US$1.7 billion, nearly 4 percent of the nation’s annual GDP. However, months later,
HOPEFUL FOR PEACE: Zelenskiy said that the war would ‘end sooner’ with Trump and that Ukraine must do all it can to ensure the fighting ends next year Russia’s state-owned gas company Gazprom early yesterday suspended gas deliveries via Ukraine, Vienna-based utility OMV said, in a development that signals a fast-approaching end of Moscow’s last gas flows to Europe. Russia’s oldest gas-export route to Europe, a pipeline dating back to Soviet days via Ukraine, is set to shut at the end of this year. Ukraine has said it would not extend the transit agreement with Russian state-owned Gazprom to deprive Russia of profits that Kyiv says help to finance the war against it. Moscow’s suspension of gas for Austria, the main receiver of gas via Ukraine, means Russia now only
‘HARD-HEADED’: Some people did not evacuate to protect their property or because they were skeptical of the warnings, a disaster agency official said Typhoon Man-yi yesterday slammed into the Philippines’ most populous island, with the national weather service warning of flooding, landslides and huge waves as the storm sweeps across the archipelago nation. Man-yi was still packing maximum sustained winds of 185kph after making its first landfall late on Saturday on lightly populated Catanduanes island. More than 1.2 million people fled their homes ahead of Man-yi as the weather forecaster warned of a “life-threatening” effect from the powerful storm, which follows an unusual streak of violent weather. Man-yi uprooted trees, brought down power lines and smashed flimsy houses to pieces after hitting Catanduanes in the typhoon-prone
RSS