Munir Awad

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Munir Awad
Born 1981
Citizenship Sweden

Munir Awad is a citizen of Sweden who has fallen under suspicion of an association with terrorism.[1][2][3] Munir Awad, and his fiancee, Safia Benaouda, were captured when Kenya forces, with United States support, invaded Somalia.

The pair describe being held in extrajudicial detention following the invasion, together with a large number of foreigners. They were eventually released.[1][2] They told reporters that the soldiers who captured them were lead by Americans and that Americans ran their interrogations.

According to an interview his fiancee gave to Raymond Bonner of the International Herald Tribune her interrogators kept asking her questions about a trip they said her boyfriend took to Denmark to recruit jihadists.[4] Benaouda told her interviewer that she told her interrogators that Awad had never been to Denmark, and that he didn't convert to Islam until after 2004.

Benaouda said she and her boyfriend had traveled to Dubai, on vacation, but were disappointed at how commercialized facilities for tourists were.[4] So they traveled to Somalia to see a more traditional Muslim culture. They arrived in Somalia shortly before it was invaded by Kenya.

On August 20 2009 the pair and their young child were apprehended in Pakistan, together with fellow Swede Mehdi Ghezali, and nine other non-Pakistanis.[3] Ghezali is reported to have told authorities that they were traveling to Lahore to participate in a Tablighi Jamaat conference. Mohammad Rizwan, the chief of police of Dera Ghazi Khan, who captured the individuals, has told the press that their luggage included a laptop computer, $10,000 USD and a suicide belt.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 "Ethiopia shows eight terror detainees on TV". CTV News. 2007-04-11. Archived from the original on 2009-09-16. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ctv.ca%2Fservlet%2FArticleNews%2Fscfcn%2FCTVNews%2F20070411%2Fethiopia_detainees_070411%2FWorld%2F&date=2009-09-16. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 "Swedish teen says US led detention". Press TV. 2007-04-14. Archived from the original on 2009-09-16. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.presstv.ir%2Fdetail.aspx%3Fid%3D5900%26sectionid%3D3510205&date=2009-09-16. 
  3. 3.0 3.1 "Terror suspect Swedes still detained: Pakistan". The Local. 2009-09-16. Archived from the original on 2009-09-16. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thelocal.se%2F22118%2F20090916%2F&date=2009-09-16. 
  4. 4.0 4.1 Raymond Bonner (2007-04-15). "Lark to Africa descends into Somali nightmare". International Herald Tribune. Archived from the original on 2009-09-16. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2007%2F04%2F15%2Fworld%2Fafrica%2F15iht-sweden.4.5297577.html&date=2009-09-16.