A Palestinian has been indicted in an Israeli military court on suspicion of being an al-Qaeda operative who possessed biological weapons and planned to train others in their use. The indictment charges him with undergoing military training, contacting the enemy and conspiring to commit murder.
Samar al-Barak, from the West Bank town of Kalkilya studied microbiology in Pakistan and underwent military training in Afghanistan. He was recruited into al-Qaeda in 2001. In August 2010 he was arrested when he tried to return to the West Bank via the Jordanian border.
“Over the years, [al-Barak] acquired a lot of knowledge and experience in the field of non-conventional weapons, with an emphasis on biological weapons, and he was in contact with senior members of the terrorist organization Al-Qaida during his stay outside the region,” a High Court brief filed by the state last year said.
It said al-Barak had agreed to pass his knowledge of poisons on to others for use in committing terror attacks. At one point, Israel tried to deport him, but no other country would take him.
Last November, al-Barak’s detention became public knowledge when he petitioned the High Court against it, but the court turned him down. “We were convinced that at this time there is no less-harmful method that would nullify the danger” posed by al-Barak, Justice Edna Arbel wrote for the court.
Samar al-Barak practiced killing dogs with poisons and was tasked with developing biological weapons by the head of Al-Qaida, Ayman al-Zawahiri. He learned to use the botulinum toxin and agreed to train other Palestinians to use it. he has been held in administrative detention for three years.
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