A suspected British member of al-Qaeda was charged with three terrorism offences and will appear at a London court on Wednesday, Manchester police said.Raingzieb Ahmed, 32, was arrested on September 7 at Heathrow airport on his return from Pakistan, where he was held for more than a year on suspicion of being a member of al-Qaeda.
Mr Ahmed was released when his detention was ruled illegal by Pakistan’s top judge Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, who was temporarily suspended from his country’s Supreme Court after questioning the government’s policy on the “extraordinary rendition” of terror suspects.
Mr Ahmed was charged with directing the activities of an organisation involved in commissioning acts of terrorism, the police said. He was also charged for possessing and distributing information useful for terrorist acts and for carrying a rucksack containing traces of explosives.
The offences were alleged to have taken place between April 2004 and January 2007.
Tayab Ali, at McCormacks, the solicitorÂ’s firm representing Mr Ahmed, said that his client denied the allegations. Human Rights Watch, the advocacy group, expressed concerns over Mr AhmedÂ’s detention, during which he was allegedly tortured by Pakistani security agencies.
Mr Ahmed, who holds dual British-Pakistani nationality, was previously arrested in India for his involvement with a Pakistani militant group fighting Indian security forces in the disputed Kashmir region, HRW said. British authorities later secured his his release.