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| Arabia |
| Bahrain arrests 7 for planning bombing |
| 2004-07-14 |
| Bahrain says it has arrested seven men on suspicion of planning bombings of government and economic sites in the pro-Western Gulf Arab state, including six suspects briefly detained last month. The move comes after the United States warned of possible attacks in Bahrain, headquarters of the U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet, and issued a mandatory evacuation order for some U.S. citizens. The Bahraini Interior Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that the men were taken back into custody after authorities found evidence in confiscated computers that they had "completed their plan and prepared to carry out terrorist operations". "They planned to carry out bombings on some government, economic and tourist facilities to spread chaos and fear and harm the national economy and foreign investments," it said. Six of the men were arrested late last month on suspicion of supporting Saudi-born Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda and planning attacks, but were freed due to lack of evidence at the time. Abdullah Hashim, a lawyer representing four of the detainees, said the charges were politically motivated. "All the information given is old and was extracted last year when some of them were first arrested on similar charges," he told Reuters. "The charges have been revived due to the U.S. move to recall nationals from Bahrain. It seems there’s some pressure from the U.S. on the Bahrain government to take extra care in dealing with this case." The Interior Ministry said that after the men were originally released, the authorities had continued to search the seized computers and test chemicals found in their possession. "The computers had files on how to make weapons, explosives, poison and chemical substances and how to obtain and use them," the ministry said. "The evidence showed the men subscribe to an ideology that encourages use of explosives to harm national and foreign interests. They identified locations and photographed them and used codes to contact each other and extremist organisations abroad," it added without elaborating. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 hmmmmm and what nationality were they? Norwegians? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-07-14 3:20:56 PM |