Algeria is in talks with Chad's government to extradite a leading Islamic militant linked to al Qaeda to face trial, Interior Minister Noureddine Zerhouni said in comments published on Sunday. The talks are seen as a last resort after a breakdown of contacts between Algeria and Chadian rebels holding the militant, Amari Saifi, who is also wanted in Germany for the kidnap of 32 European tourists in the Sahara desert last year. "He must face trial and we are in contact with the government of Chad (to achieve this)," Zerhouni said in remarks published in the government-backed newspaper El Moudjahid. "But he is of lesser interest now in terms of the anti-terrorist fight because he has been out of the country for a year," said Zerhouni. | Passed his expiration date. |
| Isn't that the day following his funeral? |
A spokesman for the rebel Movement for Democracy and Justice in Chad (MDJT), fighting Chadian authorities, said talks between Algeria and the government were a waste of time. "The GSPC members are not being held by the government but by the MDJT. So I don't see how this will solve the problem," said Abubakar Rajab, a MDJT spokesman based in France. "We won't negotiate with the Chadian government," he said. Chadian rebels warned on Friday they would soon be forced to decide the fate of the GSPC members unless Algeria picked them up. It said they had tried without success to get Saifi and his followers turned over to Algerian authorities. Security experts say the handover has been delayed because the Chad government disapproved of any direct contacts between Algeria and the MDJT. "Algeria has hit a wall and the last resort seems to be to try to pressure Chadian authorities to do something," said an Algerian security analyst, who declined to be named. "This might force other parties, like Germany, to try to help."
| We told them to put him up for sale on Ebay, but did they listen? |
| "You mean I was m-m-m-marked down?" |
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