News dot Com (AU) : Men charged with inciting terror abroad

Men charged with inciting terror abroad

Article from: Agence France-Presse | From correspondents in London

December 11, 2007 10:35am

POLICE in London have charged two men, described by a human rights activist as supporters of a separatist movement in southwestern Pakistan, with inciting terrorism outside of Britain.
The pair, 25-year-old Faiz Baluch and 39-year-old Hyrbyair Marri, were accused of "jointly inciting another person to commit an act of terrorism wholly or partly outside the UK which would, if committed in England and Wales, constitute murder".

Mr Marri was also charged with "possession (of) a weapon designed or adapted for the discharge of any noxious liquid, gas or other thing".

They will both appear at City of Westminster Magistrates Court in London today.

According to rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, they are lawful supporters of the independence movement in Baluchistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, and feared they could be extradited to Pakistan to face a possible death sentence.

The charges come less than a month after Pakistan began proceedings for the extradition to Britain of Rashid Rauf, a suspect in an alleged plot to blow up US-bound passenger planes with liquid explosives in August last year.

In April this year, newspaper reports said Pakistan was prepared to extradite Mr Rauf, from Birmingham, west central England, in exchange for eight suspected members of the Baluchistan Liberation Army.

The organisation was added to the British Government's proscribed list of terrorist organisations in July 2006, shortly before proceedings against Mr Rauf began.

The Guardian said in March this year that Britain was in secret talks to swap Mr Rauf for eight people suspected of involvement in an uprising in Baluchistan.

Mr Baluch and Mr Marri were arrested on December 4, and Scotland Yard said at the time they were not arrested on extradition warrants.