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| Europe |
| Dutch teen arrested on suspicion of planning attacks |
| 2004-07-22 |
| A teenager suspected of planning an attack, unspecified intelligence and an al Qaeda ultimatum led Dutch authorities to impose a national security alert earlier this month, officials said on Thursday. The alert was imposed after Dutch judges extended the detention of a 17-year-old man first arrested on June 30 in connection with an armed robbery investigation. Prosecutors said in a statement they now suspected he was planning an attack. A prosecution spokeswoman declined to comment on media reports that the Dutch teen is a Muslim and that police found street maps and other plans of possible targets at his home. "It (the arrest) was one of the reasons for the higher alert. There was also other information from the intelligence services from within the country and from outside," an interior ministry spokesman said. Other factors the Dutch government weighed included the expiry last week of an ultimatum from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden demanding that European states pull troops out of Iraq, Afghanistan and other Muslim countries or face new attacks like the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people in March. "You can't deny we have troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and you can't deny there was an al Qaeda ultimatum and that we have the presidency of the European Union," the spokesman said. Last weekend, Dutch police in the eastern town of Nijmegen arrested two men they suspected of planning to attack the annual Four-Day march, an international military training event that also attracts thousands of civilian participants. On Tuesday, a magistrate ruled that one of the men, a 37-year-old from Syria who is suspected of attempted murder in connection with the plans to attack what is the world's biggest walking event, could be held for a further three days. The other man, a 33-year-old from Lebanon who was suspected of threatening behaviour, was released due to lack of evidence, although prosecutors are still treating him as a suspect. Prosecutors said there was no connection between the Nijmegen case and the arrest of the man in Rotterdam. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 Glad to see Dutch teens have something to do besides smoke pot and engage in internet sex... |
| Posted by: borgboy 2004-07-22 11:39:05 PM |