Dear All,
Jordan Times 6th Feb '02
More alleged terrorists, still no Iraqis - but still Iraq in the frame. (No North Koreans either ...) hope not peripheral. best, f.
Yemen deports 5 Europeans
SANAA (AP) ‹ Yemen has deported four Britons and a Dutch man, the first of 115 religious students being sent home for visa violations, a Yemeni interior ministry official said on Tuesday.
The deportations began last week with the Netherlands national and four Britons after authorities questioned them and 110 other students in detention about any links to radical Islamic groups, the official said on customary condition of anonymity.
Neither Yemeni officials nor the Dutch or British embassies would divulge any details about the five deported students. The Dutch embassy, however, confirmed one of its citizens had been deported and the British embassy confirmed four Britons had been sent home.
The Yemeni interior ministry official said such deportations will continue in batches.
Yemeni authorities have said they are sharing information obtained from the 115 students with the United States. Some of the students have been in custody as long as four months.
The students ‹ from France, Egypt, Algeria, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sudan, Libya and Somalia, in addition to Britain and the Netherlands ‹ had been studying in religious schools in various parts of Yemen. About 80 are students and teachers of the fundamentalist Dar Al Hadith religious school, located in Marib province in the mountains about 160 kilometres east of the capital Sanaa. They were detained in December, and the school was formally closed last month.
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