Bosnia: Imprisoned former Al-Qa'idah member fears enemies trying to kill him
BBC Monitoring - August 16, 2004

Text of report by S.M.B.: "Alija Delimustafic threatens former Al-Qa'idah officer Ali Hamad?", published by Bosnian newspaper Dani on 13 August

Ali Ahmed Ali Hamad, a Bahraini citizen who has confessed to being an Al-Qa'idah infantry counterattack officer and has offered to cooperate with the US authorities, has fallen into disfavour with inmates of Zenica prison, where he is serving 12 years and nine months for terrorism and robbery. Earlier this week, he sent, through his attorney, a long letter to Sfor (Stabilization Force) Commander Gen Virgil Packett. The letter said that he "does not feel secure in Zenica prison ever since he decided to cooperate with anti-terrorist institutions, left Al-Qa'idah and opposed his former boss Usamah Bin-Ladin and his organization".

In his letter to the Sfor commander, the former Al-Qa'idah officer, who has already been visited on several occasions by Washington intelligence agents, said, "A number of inmates who profess Islam, and they are in the majority, are against me. They consider my fight against Bin Ladin and Al-Qa'idah a fight against Islam and Muslims, which I strenuously deny."

Ali Hamad noted that the "main leaders of the prison campaign against him" - Karay Kamel (self-proclaimed Abu Hamza) and Asim Ramulj (also known as Talha) - "are spreading rumours among the inmates that I am working against Islam and the B-H (Bosnia-Hercegovina) Federation, and that this may lead to the arrest of many people around the world only because they are Muslims". Ali Hamad added that most inmates believed them.

Ali Hamad also said that "Karay, Ramulj and former B-H interior minister Alija Delimustafic" obviously did not like the book about Al-Qa'idah and international terrorism that he had begun writing in prison.

"This is why," Ali Hamad noted, "they hired about 10 of the most notorious criminals (killers), who are ready to go so far as to kill me with a sharp tool and then spend 15 years in prison for a small amount of money. In return, they would be richly rewarded by the said nabob Alija Delimustafic, who has recently been transferred to Sarajevo Central Prison and is waiting to be released." According to the letter, Karay Kamel said before witnesses that Ali Hamad would not leave prison alive, and the prison authorities have already been informed of this. Ali Hamad also referred to an article published in the Islamic youth magazine Saff on 15 July 2004. The article, which denied that he had ever been an Al-Qa'idah member, was actually written in Zenica prison. Ali Hamad claimed he had witnesses to confirm this and that they had a "copy of the article written in the prison". In his letter to General Packett, Ali Hamad asked to be transferred to another prison and given a separate cell. He maintained that the organization publishing Saff had "financed, printed and published a lot of books written by Immad al-Misri, an Al-Qa'idah member, wartime commander of the al-Mujahidin unit and later the Bocinja community leader", who is now serving a 10-year prison term in Egypt.

Source: Dani, Sarajevo, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 13 Aug 04 p 6

Copyright 2004 British Broadcasting Corporation  
BBC Monitoring Europe - Political
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