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We didn`t help in bombing suspect`s release - Govt
2008-09-03 10:19:02
By Lusekelo Philemon
The government has denied involvement in the process that led to the recent release of a Tanzanian implicated in the 1998 US embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.
Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation minister Bernard Membe said in an exclusive interview in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the government had no hand in the discharge of Suleiman Abdallah Salim from where he had been detained for five years.
``There were no negotiations between the government and any other authorities on the matter. Salim was set free by the authorities responsible after they were satisfied that he was not the one they were looking for,`` explained the minister.
``There was no involvement of any kind by either the government as such or its lawyers in whatever negotiations that may have gone on,`` he added.
Membe`s statement comes only a day after this paper ran a story on Salim`s release and subsequent safe return to his home in Zanzibar on Saturday under Red Cross escort.
Salim was arrested in the Somali capital Mogadishu in 2003 as he went about his own business and was taken by American soldiers to a destination that is yet to be named.
He told The Guardian on arrival in Zanzibar on Saturday that the ``severe torture`` he underwent while in custody in Mogadishu before being moved to Nairobi left him with all fingers broken.
However, until his release, he was not taken to any court to answer any charges.
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