Zarqawi brother-in-law arrested
From correspondents in Amman, Jordan
07jul04
JORDANIAN authorities today arrested a brother-in-law of suspected al-Qaeda
operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, following his appearance in a documentary on
Al-Jazeera television, family sources said.
Saleh al-Hani, 38, was arrested at his home in Zarqa, north-east of Amman, by
plainclothes policemen who gave no explanation for his arrest, the sources
said.
Mr Hani, who is married to one of Zarqawi's sisters, was seized just days after
he took part in a programme aired on the Doha-based Arab satellite news
channel, the sources said.
A journalist, Mr Hani contributed articles to Al-Jihad, a magazine published in
Afghanistan where he had first met Zarqawi before marrying one of his six
sisters, Mr Hani told Al-Jazeera.
Television correspondent Yasser Abu Hlale said Mr Hani's remarks in the program
were biographical and not of a political nature.
The program also aired the first ever video pictures of Zarqawi.
The US last week increased the reward for the capture of Zarqawi from $US10
million ($14.1 million) to $US25 million ($35.22 million), equal to the bounty
on the head of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
US-led forces in Iraq have blamed Zarqawi for at least 25 attacks in Iraq,
including the March 2 suicide bombings in Karbala and Baghdad that killed some
170 people, still the bloodiest day of the insurgency.
Zarqawi's first wife and their four children live in Jordan, where his family
also consists of two brothers. His mother died in March.
He spent around eight years in jail in his native Jordan before being released
under a royal amnesty in 1999. He had been sentenced to 15 years of hard labour
in a case involving membership of an Islamist group.
A month after his release he left for Afghanistan. The family in Jordan has
repeatedly said they have not seen him or spoken to him on the telephone since.
His wife, Omm Mohammed, told the Jordanian newspaper Al-Dustour last month that
Zarqawi was "a friendly and good man" who could not kill women and children.
One of his sisters said on March 4: "He is innocent. It is impossible for him
to be linked with attacks that have any religious connotations."
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