MADRID, Oct 15: A suspected Al Qaeda leader, accused of being involved in the Sept 11 attacks and planning the 2004 Madrid train bombings, has been imprisoned in a secret US jail for the past year, Spain’s El Pais newspaper reported on Sunday.

Mustafa Setmarian, 48, a Syrian with Spanish citizenship, was captured in Pakistan in October 2005 and was held in a prison operated by the US Central Intelligence Agency, Pakistani and European security service officials told El Pais.

A spokesman for the US embassy in Spain declined to comment on the report.

Setmarian’s 2005 capture was reported in May this year after the United States put a $5 million bounty on the head of the alleged founder of Al Qaeda’s Spanish network.—Reuters