Police seek to quiz man over al-Qaeda network in E. Africa

• Police want to question businessman on Fazul Abdullah.
• Investigations show that Fazul may not have relatives in Mombasa.
• Officers hunting for Fazul believe he is still in communication with his associates.

Police have released a photograph of a Malindi businessman they say they want to interview over al-Qaeda’s terror network in East Africa.

Security officers said they would like to question Mr Bajnaf Mselem Swaleh about Fazul Abdullah, an al-Qaeda mastermind believed to be planning yet another terrorism attack in Kenya.

Police are investigating who may have tipped Fazul of an undercover operation last Saturday, helping him to evade police.

They are also investigating another home they raided in Malindi, shortly after Fazul fled, but whose owner was not at home.

Those interviewed by police indicated that the man had left in a hurry to attend a relative’s burial in Mombasa.

Investigations, however, showed that the man may not have relatives in Mombasa and efforts to trace him in the town were unsuccessful.

“He moved to an unknown destination and we have not been able to trace his whereabouts,” said police spokesman Eric Kiraithe.

Officers hunting for Fazul believe he is still in communication with his associates.

Investigations have also revealed that the al-Qaeda fugitive wanted for the 1998 bombing of American embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam at one time hid in Nairobi’s Eastleigh estate.

However, other police sources say Fazul may have left Kenya already after a four-day search for him produced no results, police said on Wednesday.

The police, who have raided at least one house in Mombasa and another in Eastleigh, Nairobi, say that there are no indications that the wanted terrorist was still in the country.

Coast Provincial Criminal Investigations Officer Bernard Mate said that Fazul was not at the Coast but could not say where they suspected he was.

“He is not at the Coast,” was all he could say when contacted.