By IANS
Madrid : A Spanish court has declined to arraign two Pakistanis arrested on charges of financing terrorism, but the men will remain in custody pending their possible extradition to the US, EFE news agency said.
Judicial sources said Judge Baltasar Garzon planned to interrogate Anar Muhammad Shan and Preces Mehmood Sandhupor Friday, but in the end decided to first analyse the goods confiscated from the two, who will now appear before the judge on Oct 19.
The two Pakistanis will remain in prison since they are wanted by the US Department of Justice, which accuses them of crimes of terrorism and financing an Al Qaeda cell.
Thursday’s arrests in Madrid and Barcelona were made as part of a joint operation between the Spanish police and the US FBI.
Police said both men were involved in channelling funds to members or supporters of radical terrorist organizations in Spain and abroad.
In searches carried out during the course of the operation, police seized paperwork showing 53,000 euros ($72,080) had been transferred to terrorist groups or sympathizers in Arab countries, as well as 7,000 euros ($9,520) in cash, computer and audiovisual materials, documents and cell phones.
The interior ministry said the operation began in Oct 2005 and that, since then, roughly one million euros ($1.36 million) in suspicious transactions have been discovered occurred via the informal money transfer system known as “hawala”.