Spero News : UK: Muslim arrested at Heathrow on terror charges

UK: Muslim arrested at Heathrow on terror charges

by Adrian Morgan | November 3, 2006

A 29-year old Muslim man was arrested at Heathrow airport, west of London, as he waited to board a plane to Islamabad, Pakistan.

The man, named as Sohail Anjum Qureshi, is a resident of Forest Gate, east London. He was in possession of £9,000 ($17,000) cash, a night vision scope, two metal batons, two backpacks, two sleeping bags. He also had a computer disk and hard drive which contained a document entitled "The Mujahideen Poisons Handbook."

He was arrested at Heathrow on October 18, and Wednesday he appeared at City of Westminster Magistrates Court, accompanied by three security guards. Bald-headed with a goatee beard and wearing glasses, he was charged on three counts related to acts of terrorism.

The clerk of the court said that Qureshi had "On October 18th 2006, at Heathrow Airport, with the intention of committing acts of terrorism or assisting another to commit such acts, engaged in conduct in preparation for giving effect to his intention, namely by preparing to take to Islamabad articles including £9,000 in cash, a night vision scope, two metal batons, two sleeping bags, two rucksacks and a disk and an external hard drive containing data including manuals detailing combat techniques and a copy of the Mujahideen Poison Handbook contrary to section 5(1) of the Terrorism Act 2006."

He was charged additionally with possessing a list of the articles, with a purpose of carrying out a possible terrorist act. Thirdly, he was charged with possessing the hard drive which had the "poisons Handbook", which were likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing terrorism.

The presiding senior District Judge referred the case to be heard at the Old Bailey, the central criminal court. On November 17, there will be a pre-trial hearing at either the Old Bailey or Luton Crown Court.

Police have not said if Qureshi is a British citizen or not. There was no application for bail.

In separate news, also mentioned in the Daily Mail, the same City of Westminster Magistrates Court today ordered that charges against two individuals should be dropped. Mehran Hussain, aged 25 and Umair Hussain, aged 23, brothers who lived in Chingford, had been accused of not disclosing information about a possible terror plot.

On August 10, a police operation, code-named "Operation Overt", revealed that there had been a plot to blow up US-bound transatlantic airliners using liquid explosives. Twenty people were arrested in connection with this plot, and it was revealed that there was a link to Al Qaeda in Pakistan. As a result of the revelation, no passengers were allowed to board planes carrying any liquids. Mothers were made to taste their babies' milk before entering any planes.

Mehran and Umair Hussain were charged under Section 38B (1) (a) and (2) of the Terrorism Act 2000 - "had information which he knew or believed might be of material assistance in preventing the commission of another person namely, Nabeel Hussain, of an act of terrorism and failed to disclose it as soon as reasonably practicable."

These charges related to the apparent activities of their brother Nabeel Hussain, aged 22, from Waltham Forest, northeast London. The charges against Nabeel Hussain still stand. He is charged on two counts. Firstly, he is charged under Section 1 (1) of the Criminal Law Act 1977 , where is said to have "conspired with other persons to murder other persons." He is additionally charged under Section 5 (1) of the Terrorism Act 2006 for"preparing to smuggle parts of improvised explosive devices on to aircraft and assemble and detonate them on board."

It was decided that there was not enough evidence to convict Nabeel Hussain's brothers. Though the terror alert level is still set at "severe" in Britain, and security at airports is still maintained with vigilance, the rule on banning liquids from being brought onto planes is to be relaxed. It was announced today that, as of Monday (November 6), people boarding planes will be allowed to carry 100 milliters of fluid onto an aircraft. This is a very small amount - the equivalent of a third of an average can of drink.

The fears of the air-terror plot involving liquid explosives had been described before, in a notebook belonging to Ramzi Yousef, who conducted the first bomb attack upon the World Trade Center on February 26, 1993, which killed six people and injured 1,000.

The notebook was discovered in the Philippines. The plan which had been approved by Al Qaeda, was later known as "Operation Bojinka" (Bojinka is the Croation word for "explosion"). In a Manila hotel room in 1995, details of the plot were found in the notebook, after chemicals burning in a sink alerted security services.

The plot of Operation Bojinka would have involved eleven planes, flying out from Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Singapore, bound for the United States. The FBI believed that Yousef even made a "trial run" of this plane bomb. He left a device under the seat of a Philippine Airline plane in December 1994 on a two-stage flight. He had assembled the device on board the aircraft on the first stage of the flight and then disembarked. It blew up a Japanese businessman, killing him and injuring 10 others.