Runaway Terrorist Omar Hayssam In Syrian Prison, Letter Claims

The Bucharest Court of Appeals sent, on Wednesday, a series of notices to the Justice Ministry and the Interpol to find out if businessman Omar Hayssam is imprisoned in Syria, as a letter submitted by Hayssam’s lawyer claims.

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Ion Cazacu, Hayssam’s lawyer in the trial of Mustafa Tartoussi, the owner of a ship which the Syrian businessman allegedly used to flee Romania, submitted to court on Wednesday a letter supposedly written by Hayssam’s father, claiming Hayssam has been imprisoned in Syria for the past year and a half.

Omar Hayssam’s brother Mukhles denied knowledge of this fact, when asked in court.

The lawyer asked the Romanian court to request evidence from a Syrian court, or to be granted permission to travel to Syria and talk with Hayssam about his legal defense in the case.

The prosecution said the file has been open since late 2007, thus before Hayssam was allegedly imprisoned, so his father could have testified at any time he wished.

The court has decided to ask Syrian authorities to confirm the information in the letter. The trial is to be resumed on May 13.

The case in which ship owner Mustafa Tartoussi is charged with aiding Hayssam to flee Romania has been sent back to the Bucharest Court of Appeals, after Constitutional Court judges rejected, on December 9, the claim that the use of wire tapping had been unconstitutional.

In late November 2007, prosecutors charged Mustafa Tartoussi, Mukhles Omar and Mahmoud Omar with aiding the escape of a person investigated for acts of terrorism, and Omar Hayssam with the crime of illegally exiting the country.

Investigators established that, between June 23 and 30, 2006, Tartoussi and Omar Mahmoud & Mukhles planned and aided the fleeing of Omar Hayssam, accused of terrorism by organizing and financing the kidnapping of three Romanian journalists in Iraq.

The Romanian High Court of Justice sentenced Omar Hayssam, in absentia, to 20 years in prison.

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