Pakistan to deport key Al Qaeda suspect to US

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan's president said yesterday that he will hand over senior Al Qaeda terrorist suspect Abu Farraj al-Libbi to the United States for prosecution, even though the man is believed to be behind two assassination attempts against him and could have received the death penalty in his country.

General Pervez Musharraf said that Libbi was cooperating, but had not provided useful information on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden and that Pakistan has no interest in keeping him.

''We deport Al Qaeda suspects to the United States," Musharraf said during a CNN conference in Atlanta, speaking via video hookup from Islamabad.

Libbi was arrested May 2 after a shoot-out in northwestern Pakistan. At the time, a senior intelligence officer said he had been in frequent contact with bin Laden and Pakistani interrogators were grilling him on the whereabouts of the terrorist chief.

It was not clear when Libbi would be turned over or where he is being held. At one point during the speech, Musharraf intimated that he believed the suspected terrorist had already been handed over to US custody, before backtracking.

''We are obviously going to deport him," he continued. ''We don't want him in Pakistan."

Some officials have described Libbi as Al Qaeda's number three leader, after bin Laden and surgeon Ayman al-Zawahri of Egypt. He does not appear on the FBI list of the world's most wanted terrorists, however, and his exact role in Al Qaeda is murky.

It is not entirely clear what charges if any he might face in the United States.

In Pakistan, Libbi was wanted for allegedly masterminding two attempts on Musharraf's life in December 2003. The president was not injured, but 17 people died in the second attack.