Zuhair and the Cole
Who? ISAI
However, it seems that his deportation from Bosnia and Herzegovina, either to Serbia or Bahrain, will be delayed for some time. The Bosnian Federation Prosecutor’s Office is also hoping to question Al Hamad with regard to a handful of murders allegedly committed by Mujahideen fighters.
According to an ISA Consulting source from inside the Bosnian Federation’s anti-terror unit, the prosecution primarily wishes to question Ali Hamad about the murder of a US citizen in the city of Tuzla in November 1995.
The murder of William Jefferson, a librarian and United Nations employee, was originally described as a criminal act, connected with a robbery. However, Bosnian authorities and US intelligence later implied that the murder was an act of terrorism.
The two countries’ security agencies suspect that the person who shot and robbed Jefferson was Saudi-born Ahmed Zaid Salim Zuhair, another foreign fighter in Bosnia and member of the El-Mujahid unit.
When he was captured, Zuhair was said to have had Jefferson’s gun and watch in his possession, while some witnesses claimed that he was seen in Jefferson’s car, which was stolen after he was shot. Zuhair was briefly detained after being involved in a traffic accident, but then fled the country.
He was later arrested in the Croatian city of Rijeka, but managed to escape from custody. Captured again in Pakistan, Zuhair has been held at Guantanamo Bay prison since 2002 without charges. US authorities suspect that Zuahir is connected to the al-Qaida, and among other things, was involved in the 2000 attack on the USS Cole harbored in Yemen.
Interestingly enough, Zuhair was also a suspect in the Mostar bombing, along with Ali Hamad. In April 2000, a Bosnian court sentenced Zuhair to 12 years in prison for terrorism in connection with the Mostar attack.
Both Zuhair and Ali Hamad were also connected to the so-called Algerian Group – six Algerian-born men with Bosnian citizenship who were recently released from Guantanamo. The Algerian Group was suspected of preparing attacks on the US embassy in Sarajevo. In November last year, a US judge ruled that the US government had failed to make a case for holding five of the six men without charges.
