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Southeast Asia
Thailand Jails Alleged Hizbullah Bomb Suspect
2013-09-19
[AnNahar] Thailand on Wednesday sentenced a Swedish citizen of Lebanese origin to two years and eight months in prison for possession of materials that could be used to make a bomb.

Atris Hussein, 49, was placed in durance vile
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
in January last year after a tip-off from Israel's secret services that Hizbullah members planned to attack Thailand during the New Year.

He was convicted for possessing about 2,800 kilos (2.8 tons) of ammonium nitrate, which is commonly used in agriculture but when mixed with other substances can make a bomb. Its possession requires a permit in Thailand.

"The court found him guilty of illegal armament possession and sentenced him to four years in jail, but due to his useful testimony during the investigation and hearing his sentence is reduced by one-third to two years and eight months," a judge said.

The court said Sherlocks could not prove Hussein had links with Hizbullah.

Hussein, who had faced a maximum of five years in jail, denied the charges and the alleged links to Hizbullah.

Before his arrest, the United States had warned of a "serious" threat of a terrorist attack on tourist areas in Bangkok.

A smiling Hussein hugged his wife and daughter after the ruling.

Asked how he felt, he replied: "I'm happy."

His lawyer Wittaya Buranasin said the defense would appeal.

"The investigation process should follow the law. Hussein himself said clearly he did not have a lawyer present when he was questioned," Wittaya said.

In a separate case, two Iranian men were last month sentenced to between 15 years and life for their parts in a botched bomb plot last year in Bangkok that ended with one of them having his legs blown off.

The pair were among five Iranians suspected of involvement in blasts that Israel linked to a 2012 spate of attacks on its diplomats around the world.
Link


Southeast Asia
Lebanese-Swedish Citizen Denies Hizbullah Link in Thai Court
2013-07-03
[An Nahar] A Swedish-Lebanese man denied on Tuesday links to Hizbullah during his trial on charges of breaking Thailand's weapons laws.

Atris Hussein, 48, was locked away
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
in Bangkok in January last year and police later found chemicals that can be used to make a bomb at an address he rented.

According to the charges, Hussein and some unidentified accomplices had packed more than six tons of ammonium nitrate into bags.

In March, Thai authorities alleged Atris had connections to Hizbullah.

Giving testimony for the first time Atris -- who was handed Swedish citizenship after claiming asylum -- denied the charges.

"I know Hizbullah in general," he told a court.

"But I don't have any relation -- either directly or indirectly -- with the group," he said, adding the movement is widely known in Leb and is part of the government.

Ammonium nitrate is commonly used in agriculture, but mixed with other substances can make a bomb. Its possession requires a permit in Thailand.

Prior to his arrest, the United States had warned of a "serious" threat of a terrorist attack on tourist areas in Bangkok.

Two Iranians are currently on trial for suspected involvement in a botched bomb plot against Israeli diplomats in Bangkok in February 2012.
Link


Europe
Cyprus Bomb-Plot Suspect Admits Hezbollah Ties
2013-02-21
[Jpost] Lebanese-Swede accused of July terror plot against Israeli tourists in Cyprus sheds light on Hezbollah activities in court testimony.
Lots of hyphenated Lebanese lads getting in trouble all of a sudden...
Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, one of the suspects in a thwarted terrorist attack against Israelis in Cyprus in July, admitted on Wednesday in court that he is a member of Hezbollah.

Yaacoub, a 24-year old Lebanese-Swedish citizen, faces eight charges in the criminal court in the city of Limassol. The Cypriot authorities charged him with membership in a criminal organization whose aim is "carrying out missions in any part of the world, including the Cyprus Republic, against Israeli citizens," among seven other crimes -- reduced from an original 17 terrorism-related charges.

The Jerusalem Post has learned that Yaacoub said under oath on Wednesday that while he came to Cyprus without Hezbollah connections, he met with an operative named Ayman from the Lebanese terrorist group. Yaacoub said he knew how to use weapons but that the purpose of his visit to Cyprus was business.

It is unclear if Yaacoub's meeting with the Hezbollah operative took place in Cyprus, Leb or Sweden.

The New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
reported on Wednesday that Yaacoub told the court, "I never saw the face of Ayman because he was always wearing a mask," and that Ayman picked Yaacoub up in a van. Yaacoub conducted surveillance of places where Israelis would visit, including a "parking lot behind a Limassol hospital and a hotel called the Golden Arches," the Times reported.

Magnus Ranstorp, a Hezbollah expert at Sweden's National Defense College, told the Post on Tuesday that Hezbollah uses "talent scouting" to recruit operatives for its activities abroad. Though Hezbollah had no "overt presence" in Sweden, he said, its members from Sweden keep "popping up regularly."

Last year, Thai authorities charged Atris Hussein, a Hezbollah operative and a Swedish-Lebanese citizen, with planning to use explosives to strike against American and Israeli citizens.

The Cypriot prosecution is slated to cross-examine Yaacoub on Thursday, and the case may run until March 7, with a verdict anticipated in mid-March.

"I'm only trained to defend Leb," the Times quoted Yaacoub as saying. It noted that "he was jugged
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
in July with the license plates of buses ferrying Israelis written in a small red notebook."

He "said that he wrote them down because one of the license numbers, LAA- 505, reminded him of a Lamborghini sports car, while the other, KWK-663, reminded him of a Kawasaki cycle of violence," the Times wrote.

The Cypriot paper Simerini reported last week that Yaacoub "apologized" for his role in the planned attack.

According to the Greek-language newspaper's report, Yaacoub's attorney asked for a week-long postponement of the trial in order to prepare in writing the avowed apology of his client. The court determined that there is evidence for a prima facie case against Yaacoub.

La Belle France, Germany and Sweden have resisted including Hezbollah in the EU terror list, but a conviction in Cyprus might be a tipping point toward sanctioning the Lebanese militia.

Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov announced earlier this month that Hezbollah operatives were responsible for the July kaboom in Burgas that killed five Israelis and their Bulgarian bus driver, which occurred several weeks after Yaacoub's arrest.

Tsvetanov announced the two suspected Burgas perpetrators "were members of the beturbanned goon wing of Hezbollah," and added that Sherlocks have found information "showing the financing and connection between Hezbollah and the two suspects."

The suspects in the Burgas case observed the Black sea resort town -- a popular destination for Israeli vacationers -- from late June to July 18, when the attack took place.

Yaacoub is believed to have engaged in a similar method of surveillance of Israeli tourists in Cyprus.

Yaacoub is not married and lived in the Swedish town of Lidköping, where his father runs a pottery business. The Post could not confirm a report that when Yaacoub was arrested he was studying journalism in Leb.

Ranstorp told the Post there was a pattern by Hezbollah "to use individuals to bypass Israeli security," citing the example of the two Burgas bombing suspects using Australian and Canadian passports to enter Bulgaria and plan their terrorist attack.

"Hezbollah and Iran are two sides of the same coin," Ranstorp said. "They form a nexus, sometimes more overt, sometimes less. That Hezbollah is involved in terrorism with Iranian intelligence is what makes them so dangerous. One should not take them lightly," he said.

"With Burgas, Hezbollah has crossed a rubicon," because the attack was on European soil, said Ranstorp, adding that "now it is easy to close the door on Hezbollah" because there have been too many such incidents.
Also, two pages of details from the New York Times, including this tidbit:
Mr. Yaacoub’s testimony offered unaccustomed insights from an active Hezbollah member into the militant group’s secret operations. But it carried potentially greater significance for the European Union, which has thus far resisted following Washington’s lead in declaring the group a terrorist organization. Experts say that a conviction here would substantially raise the pressure on the bloc for such a designation.

“Foreign ministries around Europe are watching this quite closely because many Europeans, particularly the Germans, have laid such a stress on courtroom evidence being the basis for a designation,” said Daniel Benjamin, until December the top counterterrorism official at the State Department, who visited Cyprus last year after the arrest.
Link


Southeast Asia
Thailand Charges Hizbullah Suspect in Terror Probe
2012-01-17
[An Nahar] Thai authorities charged on Monday a Lebanese Hizbullah suspect with illegally possessing kabooms. He faces up to five years in prison.

Atris Hussein was jugged by police Thursday at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport, trying to leave the country. Police are still looking for another Lebanese suspect.

Hussein led Thai police Monday to a warehouse filled with materials commonly used to make bombs.

Police confiscated more than 8,800 pounds (4,000 kilograms) of urea fertilizer and several gallons of liquid ammonium nitrate during the early morning raid of the warehouse in Samut Sakhon, on the western outskirts of Bangkok, according to police and media reports.

Hussein told police that he and other accomplices had rented the warehouse a year ago, according to a police official.

The official said that police also found shipping containers, leading them to believe the materials were destined for shipment elsewhere, though he declined to say where.

The raid came after the U.S. Embassy issued an "emergency message" Friday warning of a possible terror threat against Americans in Bangkok, and Israel sent out a similar warning to its citizens. A dozen other embassies have since urged their citizens to exercise caution.

Thai authorities were caught off-guard by the U.S. announcement, hastily revealing they had jugged a Swedish national of Lebanese origin with alleged links to Hizbullah on Thursday and that intelligence indicated a plot could be carried out between Jan. 13 and 15.

The defense minister said the news was not released earlier to avoid panic that could hurt Thailand's tourism industry.

Damage control continued Monday, with the prime minister calling for calm.

"I'd like to tell people not to panic. The situation is under control. There is no problem," Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra told news hounds, adding that security was increased and intelligence agencies were closely following the situation.

Details of the alleged plot remained hazy Monday due to a variety of conflicting accounts from Thai officials, some of whom said that Thailand appeared to have been a staging ground but not the target of any plot.

"I think Thailand is likely a transit point for other regions of the world," national police chief Gen. Prewpan Dhamapong told news hounds after the raid. "It is unlikely that they would have staged terror attacks in Thailand."

But the U.S. Embassy said it stood by its warning of a possible attack in Bangkok.
Link


Southeast Asia
Terror suspect in Thailand is Swedish Lebanese
2012-01-15
Atris Hussein, the 47-year old man tossed in the slammer on terror suspicion in Thailand on Friday, is Swedish Lebanese, Army Radio reported Saturday.

Hussein is suspected to be a Hezbullies member who was planning to carry out an attack in Bangkok.
More from Ma'an:
"Following concern raised by the Israeli embassy about a possible attack by a group of Lebanese Islamic fascisti in Bangkok, Thai police officials had been coordinating with Israeli officials since before the New Year."

Defense Minister Yuthasak Sasiprapha said Thai and US intelligence officials were monitoring the movements of other individuals and were stepping up precautions in areas deemed to be at risk such as tourist sites and Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport.

A defense ministry source said Israeli intelligence had contacted Thai officials on Dec. 22 with information that two or three suspects could be planning an attack in Thailand. However,
if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well...
the individuals traveled to the south and left the country.

The Israelis alerted Thai officials again on Jan. 8 of the danger of an attack around Jan. 13 to 15 in areas where there are often large concentrations of Western tourists, such as the Khao San Road, which is popular with young backpackers.

Defense Minister Yuthasak said the Israeli embassy and synagogues could also be targeted and that the attacks could come in the form of car booms.
And even more from Ynet:
The suspect jugged in Bangkok on suspicion of planning to blow up Israeli targets in Thailand has been identified as 47-year-old Hussein Atris, an Lebanese man holding a Swedish passport
 
An examination of the passport, which was obtained by Ynet,
Image of the passport can be seen at the link -- no doubt of interest to some Rantburg readers...
revealed that Atris was born in southern Leb and married a Swedish woman in 1996. The marriage made him eligible for a Swedish passport, which he allegedly exploited for the benefit of Hezbullies's terrorism apparatus.

According to reports by Swedish media, Atris previously owned a hair saloon in Gothenburg, before returning to Leb more than 10 years ago. Moreover, one of his relatives, Germany resident Muhammad Atris, was involved in the past in the Iranian liquidation of four Kurdish opposition figures in 1992.
 There are few true secrets nowadays, between a voracious press and the Internet.
Meanwhile,
...back at the palazzo, Count Guido had escaped from his bonds and overwhelmed this guard using the bludgeon the faithful Filomena had smuggled to him in the loaf of bread...
Thai police were looking for Atris' accomplice, who is believed to be in his 30s or 40s. Police in Bangkok published the suspect's composite portrait, which bears great resemblance to Hezbullies operative Naim Haris. The latter's photo was unusually published last year, by the Shin Bet, which at the time identified him as an operative in charge of recruiting Hezbullies agents worldwide..
Link



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