Egyptian terrorist suspect nabbed along Ethiopian-Djibouti border

ADDIS ABABA, 23, 2004 (dpa) — An Egyptian national arrested last week at the Ethiopian border is suspected by police to have been on a possible terrorist mission, the local press reported Wednesday.

Ethiopian security arrested 38-year-old Marzuk Abdulazim Abdurazak on June 14 as he tried to enter Ethiopia from neighbouring Djibouti with a forged Ethiopian passport, the report said.

He appeared in the Federal First Instance Court in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on Monday, which granted police a 14-day custody warrant for further investigation.

The suspect had initially claimed to be an Ethiopian national of ethnic Somali origin working for a Sudanese company in Addis Ababa.

Members of the al-Qaeda terrorist network were reported in the past to have been operating in Ethiopia in collaboration with the al- Ittihad al-Islamiya organization, which supports separatist elements in the country’s east and south-east from bases in Somalia.

Ethiopia has been identified as being among the countries where an al-Qaeda has established a presence.

Abdul Aziz al Muqurim, a leading al-Qaeda chieftain killed recently in Saudi Arabia, was captured in the 1990s by Ethiopian forces who were fighting separatist elements.