Al-Qaeda suspect freed on bail

Al-Qaeda suspect freed on bail

A man arrested in a raid which led to the capture of an alleged leading member of al-Qaeda has been released on bail in Pakistan.

Ahmed Qadus was detained after it was alleged he had links with al-Qaeda chief operative, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Sheikh Mohammed and alleged al-Qaeda financier Mustafa al-Hisawai were arrested at the home of Mr Qadus in Rawalpindi on 1 March in a joint operation between the FBI and Pakistani authorities.

The family of Mr Qadus insist he is innocent and claim the al-Qaeda men were never at the house.

Mr Qadus was granted bail on Tuesday after Judge Syed Pervez Ali Shah made the order in a Rawalpindi court.

'Weak and shocked'

A sister-in-law of Mr Qadus told the AFP news agency: "Thank God he is with us again, we are very happy."

"He is not stable; he is weak and shocked after more than three weeks of solitary confinement."

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has been handed over to US authorities

The judge accepted a defence technical plea that the case against Mr Qadus had been registered several days after his arrest.

Following the court order, Mr Qadus' lawyer, Mohammed Mudasser, sought his client's immediate release and said he would take the order to the prison where he was being held.

His family had feared he would be detained for some time after Kokab Nadeem, the superintendent of Adyala prison in Rawalpindi, where Mr Qadus was being held, said the government might continue to hold him on other charges.

Mr Qadus, a member of the hardline Jamaat-e-Islami party, has not been charged with terrorism.

He was being held on charges of sheltering a religious extremist.

The authorities had wanted his trial to be conducted in an anti-terrorism court, but a judge ruled that as Mr Qadus had not been accused of involvement in terrorism his case should be transferred to a criminal court.

Under new anti-terrorism laws, a suspect can be held for up to a year.

Mohammed, believed to be the No 3 in al-Qaeda, and al-Hisawai have been handed over to American authorities and are being questioned at an undisclosed location outside Pakistan.