Three due in court on Tube terror charges
Three men are due in court tomorrow charged in connection with an alleged plot to carry out a terrorist attack which police sources say involved the London Underground, it emerged today.
Scotland Yard refused to comment officially on claims in the Sunday Times newspaper that the attack involved releasing cyanide gas on a crowded Tube carriage.
The men, believed to be north Africans, were remanded in custody by magistrates this week and are due in court again tomorrow, charged under Section 57 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
Rabah Chekat-Bais, 21, Rabah Kadris, in his mid 30s, and Karim Kadouri, 33, all of no fixed abode, were charged over the possession of articles for the preparation, instigation and commission of terrorism acts.
Unemployed Chekat-Bais appeared before Bow Street Magistrates Court, in central London, on Monday and Kadris and Kadouri, also both unemployed, appeared in court on Tuesday.
News of the charges came after Prime Minister Tony Blair said that security services were warning on an almost daily basis of terrorist threats to a wide range of targets in the UK.
But he said that if he had acted on every piece of raw intelligence during his time as premier he would have shut down roads, rail links, airports, stations, shopping centres, factories and military installations “on many occasions”.
It also follows a statement accidentally released by the Home Office spelling out in lurid detail a series of possible al-Qaida tactics, ranging from dirty bombs to attacks on planes, boats and trains.
But the statement was quickly withdrawn and replaced with a more measured document, leading to criticism of the Government for unnecessarily spreading anxieties.
The Sunday Times report said that six north African men had been arrested on Saturday November 9 by Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorist branch in connection with the plot.
It said officers raided several addresses in north London, taking away items during searches.
Three of the men were later released and no chemicals or bomb equipment were found, the report said.
Sunday Times assistant editor Nicholas Rufford told Sky News: “There were six arrests originally, three people were released, only three were charged.
“And those have been charged under section 57 of the Act which relates to carrying articles which could be used for terrorist purposes.
“My understanding is that no chemical or bomb-making equipment was recovered. So that suggests that the equipment or the materials may still be out there and as far as I understand the investigation is continuing.
“The plan I believe was to bring the ingredients of a gas bomb into the country. As far as I know, as far as I understand, the materials never arrived.
“Certainly if they did arrive they haven’t yet been found or intercepted.”
British government sources insisted the case had nothing to do with Mr Blair’s warning, in his speech to the Lord Mayor’s banquet.
Nor, the sources added, was the case connected to Home Secretary David Blunkett’s Home Office warning that al Qaida might be ready to use “a so-called dirty bomb, or some kind of poison gas.”
Seven years ago a nerve-gas attack on the Tokyo subway killed 12 people and injured 5,000 others.
A spokeswoman from London Underground would not comment on the report but appealed to passengers to be vigilant.
