Saleem Abbassi held at Chennai airport

Chennai: A 42-year-old man, against whom a red corner notice had been issued by the Interpol in 1993, was intercepted at the Chennai international airport on Wednesday.
Saleem Abbassi, an Alegerian by birth had landed in Chennai from Kuala Lumpur on a Malaysian Airlines flight MH 180 at 10.45 pm on Wednesday.
The notice was issued against Abbassi by Interpol officer in Algeria in 1993 for his alleged involvement in the Algiers airport bomb blast in August 1992.
Saleem is the son of Madani Abbassi, president of the Islamic Salvation Front, popularly the FIS (an Algerian political party) that was prevented from forming a government in Algeria when the military took over.
Saleem, reportedly left Algeria for greener pastures in Europe.
He was in Germany, Belgium and other European countries for sometime after which he settled in Qatar from 1998 onwards. In fact, his visa to India was stamped on a passport issued in Qatar on June, 4, 2007 valid till 2012.
Saleem Abbassi was wanted in the case of a series of bomb blasts at Houari Boumediene Airport, Algiers, which killed nine people and wounded another 100.
This was his first trip to India. “He claimed that he was a businessman from Qatar and was on his way to Bangalore on an invitation of the Government of Karnataka to do some business in renewable solar energy,” a police official told Express.
Saleem has now been remanded to judicial custody after a 12-hour interrogation where in the Ministry of External Affairs was contacted and the Look out Circular issued against him by the Interpol officer in Algeria was confirmed. Officials, however, deny any Al Qaeda links he could allegedly have and say he was purely on a business visit to India.
19/06/09 Mamta Todi/ExpressBuzz

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Categories: Airports Jun 2009, Foreign Jun 2009