“Satut and Dabbas are suspected of collaborating with a terrorist group, document forgery and money laundering … The men allegedly channeled funds provided by members or sympathizers of Islamic terrorist organizations, both in Spain and abroad.”
“Spain swoops on 2 terror suspects,” from CNN:
MADRID, Spain (CNN) — Spanish police have arrested two Syrian-born men in
Madrid for collaboration with an Islamic terrorist group, including one who was acquitted two years ago at a major trial of al Qaeda suspects in Spain, the country’s Interior Ministry says.
The man who is now in custody a second time was identified as Bassam Dalati
Satut, 48.
Satut was acquitted in 2005 of belonging to a terrorist group at a trial in which 18 of the 24 defendants were convicted of Islamic terrorist activities, court records show.
Spain’s Supreme Court in 2006 overturned three of the lower court’s convictions
from that sentence, leaving 15 convicted, in what was one of Europe’s largest trials to date involving operatives allegedly linked to al Qaeda.
In the latest operation, Satut and the other suspect, Samer Dabbas, 30 — both born in Aleppo, Syria — were arrested Tuesday, but the Interior Ministry did not announce their arrests until Wednesday.
Satut is suspected of running terrorist-related business and financial affairs, allegedly replacing another Syrian-born man who earlier held that post and was a co-defendant of Satut’s in the 2005 terrorism trial, according to the Interior Ministry statement and court records seen by CNN.
That man, Mohamed Ghaleb Kalaje Zouaydi, was convicted in the 2005 trial and is
serving a nine-year sentence for membership in a terrorist group, court records show.
Satut and Dabbas are suspected of collaborating with a terrorist group, document forgery and money laundering, the ministry statement said.
The men allegedly channeled funds provided by members or sympathizers of
Islamic terrorist organizations, both in Spain and abroad. Much of this money was laundered by investing it in housing construction and then obtaining profits considered to be legitimate money, which was then sent outside of Spain, the statement said.
In a search at the homes of the two suspects, police found 120,000 euros
($156,000) in cash in a safe that was hidden in a kitchen, various news media clippings related to Islamic terrorism, computer materials and cell phones, the statement said.