AP News, August 16th, 2007
A former Guantanamo detainee has been arrested in Denmark on suspicion of withdrawing $18,900 from other people's accounts using stolen debit cards and PIN codes, police said Thursday.
Slimane Hadj Abderrahmane, a Danish citizen, was released from the Guantanamo Bay detention center in 2004 after nearly two years in captivity.
Abderrahmane, 34, was arrested Wednesday and ordered held in jail for two weeks on preliminary fraud and theft charges, police said.
He is suspected of stealing three debit cards _ two corporate cards and one personal _ and the corresponding PIN codes. Police did not say how he stole them.
They said Abderrahmane, who got a job with the postal service after returning to Denmark, also stole two passports that were sent by mail.
It was not immediately clear how he responded to the allegations, because the court hearing was closed to the public.
Prosecutor Joergen Panum told Danish news agency Ritzau that some of the money and stolen goods were found when police searched the suspect's home.
In a statement, Denmark's domestic intelligence and security agency, known by its Danish acronym PET, said they had been monitoring Abderrahmane's movements and was following the police investigation.
"If PET finds that the mentioned person has been involved in terror-related activities, PET will take the necessary steps," Jakob Scharf, head of the Danish Security Intelligence Service said. No other details were immediately available.
Abderrahmane, who is of mixed Danish-Algerian descent, was released Feb. 24, 2004, after being held for 747 days at the former U.S. Navy base-turned-detention center in Cuba. He was immediately flown to Denmark.
He said he was in a training camp for Islamic fighters in Chechnya when he was arrested in Pakistan in late January or early February 2002. He was transferred to Guantanamo in February 2002.
Abderrahmane was never charged.
