Former Bin Laden bodyguard, Tunisian Sami A., detained in Germany

[Valin]

AL ARABIYA/Reuters

26 June 2018

A suspected radical who once served as Osama bin Laden’s bodyguard, was detained in Germany on Monday, police said.

The case of the Tunisian man, Sami A., sparked outrage in April after German media reported that he was receiving welfare benefits even though intelligence agencies have classified him as a potential threat.

Authorities in the western city of Bochum had asked police to detain Sami A. and the man did not resist, a spokesman for police there said. Top-selling newspaper Bild reported, without citing its sources, that Sami A. was now due to be deported.

(Snip)

German authorities have been trying to deport the man, who has lived in the northwestern city of Bochum since 1997, since 2006 but the threat of torture in his home country had prevented this, according to a previous report in Bild.