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Squadron Member Implicates Hizbullah In Mauritius Court
by Kazi Mahmood
KUALA LUMPUR, June 28 (IslamOnline) - Hateem Oozeer, an active Squadron of Death member, on Thursday directly implicated Cehl Meeah Fakeermeah, the leader of the Mauritian Hizbullah (no relation to Lebanese Hezbollah), in several robberies that occurred across the country.
The court case against Oozeer opened Thursday in the intermediary court. His case might be sent to Mauritius's highest court in the coming months due to the nature of the crime, sources said. He risks a long-term jail sentences of up to 45 years, or life imprisonment, as he pleaded guilty to all charges against him.
Magistrate Pritviraj Fekna urged the prosecution to allow her to read the several depositions made by Oozeer to the police. She said it would help her decide Oozeer's proper sentence.
In police depositions read in court, Oozeer accuses the Hizbullah leader, believed to be involved in the infamous Squadron of Death, of being implicated in Squadron activities.
He cited a plan to attack a drug trafficker drafted by Ibrahim Sheriff, the leader of the Squadron of Death. The group wanted to take the trafficker's money and apportion it with the Hizbullah leader.
Oozeer said in the statement that Sheriff reported the attack to Fakeermeah after they murdered the drug trafficker.
In other cases, Fakeermeah received his share of lootings from other targets, said Oozeer. "Sheriff told the gang that the money we get from these attacks will be shared with the Hizbullah in order to allow it run its school."
The accused, who survived a series of suicide attempts by the gang when police were tracking them in December, declared that he made an oath of allegiance to Fakeermeah.
He claim he was the driver of the Hizbullah leader, a claim the latter denied, and said he was by Fakeermeah's side when the latter was discussing plans with the gang.
Oozeer said Fakeermeah had approved all the attacks and robberies committed by the gang since 1993 onwards, including the murder of three Labor Party activists in 1995.
The three political activists were killed in one of the most gruesome mafia-style attacks in Mauritius, the police said. Bullets from different assault rifles and guns riddled their bodies and car.
The murder case dragged for years with those responsible walking freely until a sensational revelation by a young man associated with the gang forced the police to reopen the case last year.
The reopening led the police on a manhunt, tracking Sheriff and other gang members, including Oozeer, around the island of Mauritius. Sheriff, and other prominent gang members, committed suicide in a bid to escape a police investigation.
Hateem survived the suicide attempt because he did not take the poison, sources said, and surrendered to the police after Sheriff's death. Another member of the Squadron, police constable Chummun, did not take the poison as well.
For several years Mauritius was rocked by a series of unexplained murders and bank robberies. The rumor mill in the country attributed the murder spree to the Squadron of Death, created with the aim of cleansing Muslim-dominated areas of the influence of drugs.
Several Muslims traveling to Malaysia told IslamOnline that the Muslim community in Mauritius was concerned over Fakeermeah's incarceration. They added that police had no evidence backing the accusations against the Hizbullah leader, and that he should be released.
A number websites and organizations exist worldwide that have alerted the Muslim world of the treatment inflicted against Fakeermeah while in detention.
One such organization deplored the fact that Amnesty International refused to step in and inquire on the veracity of the brutality reports against Fakeermeah.
Prosecutors, however, believe that Fakeermeah headed the Squadron and forced it to commit crimes in order to pay debts accumulated on the construction of a lavish Hizbullah Center in the southern part of Mauritius.
Fakeermeah has denied all accusations against him and has called on Muslims worldwide to force the opening of an independent inquiry on the brutality he has suffered while in custody.
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