20110519
Reuters
DAKAR (Reuters) - Senegalese authorities have arrested a British-Senegalese national suspected of involvement in financing terrorism and being in regular contact with an English militant, the man's lawyer said on Wednesday.

Neither the Senegalese authorities nor the British embassy were available for comment. A local radio station reported that the security forces were also looking for a British national and a Pakistani in connection with the case.

Lawyer Papa Khaly Niang said his client, Mame Cheikh Gaye, who has dual nationality, was arrested on Wednesday in Dakar on suspicion of "terrorist activities" and being involved in "money-laundering to finance terrorism".

Gaye has also been accused of having been regularly in touch with an "English terrorist", the lawyer said, adding that his client was a businessman.

No further information was available.

Al Qaeda's North African Wing, which is known as AQIM, has been increasingly active in West Africa's Sahel-Sahara desert zone in recent years, mostly through the kidnapping of foreigners for large ransom payments.

Most of the attacks have taken place in remote regions and Senegal has not been affected so far.

Experts have said, however, that the group has carried out several attacks in urban areas in the region and is likely to want to avenge the death of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan earlier this month.