Australia charges Indian doctor in UK bomb plot
Pastor Dale Morgan
Australia charges Indian doctor in UK bomb plot*
By Victoria Thieberger
Reuters
Friday, July 13, 2007; 8:51 PM
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australian Federal Police said on Saturday they
had charged a 27-year-old Indian doctor over his alleged links to
attempted car bomb attacks in Britain on June 29 and 30.
Mohamed Haneef was charged with providing support to a terrorist
organisation, police said. He is due to appear in court in Brisbane
later on Saturday.
The Queensland-based doctor had been held for 12 days and police
withdrew a request on Friday afternoon to extend his detention, and
began 12 hours of questioning.
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty said the police
charge cited recklessness, rather than intention. "The allegation being
that he was reckless about some of the support he provided to that
group, in particular, the provision of his (mobile phone) SIM card for
the use of the group."
Haneef is one of six Indian doctors questioned in Australia over the
suspected al Qaeda-linked plot in Britain. The others have been
released. Haneef could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
Keelty said the charges came after 12 days of investigation, with almost
300 police and lawyers working on the case, sifting through the
equivalent of 36,000 four-drawer filing cabinets of material.
"That is the quantity of material that has been seized in electronic
form, from various locations," Keelty told reporters in Canberra.
Two car bombs primed to explode in London's bustling theatre and
nightclub district were discovered early on June 29. The following day a
jeep crashed into the terminal building at Glasgow airport in Scotland
and burst into flames.
OPPOSING BAIL
Haneef's lawyer Peter Russo told Australian radio that Haneef was "very
upset" by the news and would apply for bail.
Keelty said police would oppose bail and it remained to be seen whether
police in Britain had any evidence to support an extradition request.
Australian anti-terrorism laws allow police 24 hours of questioning.
They had only used 12 hours by Friday, and restarted questioning early
on Saturday.
Haneef was detained at Brisbane airport on July 2 as he was about to
board a flight to India.
All six suspects in Britain are medics from the Middle East or India.
One, Iraqi-trained doctor Bilal Abdulla, 27, was charged last week with
conspiring to cause explosions.
Haneef is a second cousin to Kafeel Ahmed, a suspect who is in a
critical condition with burns from the Glasgow attack, and last
contacted him via the Internet in March/April 2007, police documents
cited by The Australian newspaper said.
The documents said Haneef was not very close to his cousin, but stayed
with him and other suspects when he visited Britain in 2004. When Haneef
left Britain in 2006 to travel to Australia to work, he left his mobile
telephone SIM card, which one of the suspects later used to access a
cheaper telephone deal.
(additional reporting by James Grubel in Canberra)