Romaniaâs minister of interior Vasile Blaga Friday was the first to admit that suspected terrorist Omar Hayssam might have fled Romania. He did not address the responsibility staying with the border police for such an event.
Acting prosecutor general Ilie Botos launched an investigation into the circumstances allowing Hayssam to leave Romania without the authoritiesâ knowledge.
Hayssam was arrested April last year on economic charges, and in October was indicted for his alleged masterminding of the kidnapping operation of three Romanian journalists in Iraq. In April this year the court released Hayssam from prison after he presented a medical report showing he was terminally ill.
Rumors have it that Hayssam boarded July 12, at Midia Black Sea port, a freight boat transporting young rams to the Middle East.
Customs experts say ram transports had been used before by Arab residents in Romania to smuggle cigarettes, arms and other merchandise.
The Midia port is specialized in operating transports of live animals since communist times, having large areas for inspections of animals and fodder.
Hayssam himself operated ram exports to his homeland Syria and other countries in the Middle East; therefore he must have been informed on customs and guarding procedures in the port and maybe forged the kind of personal relationships which might have enabled him to flee Romania.
Sources said illegal boarding of people usually takes place shortly before the ship leaves port.
Hayssam kept secret his intentions to his own family and launched rumors that he checked into a sanatorium in Romaniaâs mountain region.
Ironically, on the very day Hayssam allegedly fled the country, President Traian Basescu attended the meeting the intelligence services were presenting their annual report in.
The ship Al Mahmoud 4, which suspec
