COPENHAGEN,
October 28, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Four Danish
Muslims were arrested in Denmark on what Danish police said were
suspicions of planning attacks in Europe.
"The
information we've received is that they were apparently planning an
attack in Europe. But we don't know any more for the moment,"
police spokesman Flemming Steen Munch told Agence France Presse (AFP)
Friday, October 28.
The
four Danish Muslims, aged 16 to 20, were arrested Thursday, October
27, in the Copenhagen suburb of Broendby and elsewhere in the capital.
"One
of them has Danish nationality and the three others are citizens of
Middle Eastern countries," Munch said.
A
Copenhagen court has ordered the four men, who were not further
identified, to remain in custody until November 16 pending a full
investigation.
Police
said they raided homes of the four men in the Copenhagen area, seizing
computers, discs, books and cellular phones. Some 25 people were also
briefly detained in the raid.
Police
commissioner Joern Bro, who is in charge of the case, told Danish news
agency Ritzau the four men were detained after "strong suspicions
that they were planning a terrorist act ... at a site in Europe and in
the near future."
However,
no details were given on the intended target of the group's alleged
plot.
Tip-off
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Bro said that the arrest was linked to an investigation in the Balkans.
|
Danish
media reports said that the Danish intelligence service PET had
received a tip-off from authorities in an unnamed Balkan country about
the four men.
Bro
said that the arrest was linked to an investigation in the Balkans in
which large quantities of explosives and weapons were reportedly
discovered as well as e-mail correspondence with the four held in
Denmark.
Last
week, a Swede, a Turk and a Bosnian man were arrested in Sarajevo on
suspicions of being involved in preparing an unspecified attack.
According
to the online edition of Swedish daily Expressen, the Swede,
identified only as an 18-year-old, is "linked" to the four
arrested in Denmark and was planning a bombing attack against either
the British or US embassy in Sarajevo.
Denmark,
one of the United State's staunchest allies in Iraq, has tightened
security measures following the July 7 terrorist attacks in London.
Last
September, a Moroccan-born Danish Muslim was charged with 'inciting'
Muslims to launch attacks in the country.
He
was the first person to be charged under a Danish anti-terrorism law
enacted in 2002 following the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The
laws make it illegal to incite acts of terrorism or offer advice to
terrorists and carry a penalty of up to six years in jail.
A
recent report by the International Helsinki Federation for Human
Rights (IHF) also said that Muslim minorities across Europe have been
experiencing growing distrust, hostility and discrimination since the
9/11 attacks.
Danish
Muslims - estimated at 180,000 or around 3 per cent of Denmark's 5.4
million – sounded the alarms that much more restrictive steps would
be taken by the government in future.
Islam
is Denmark's second largest religion after the Lutheran Protestant
Church, which is actively followed by four-fifths of the country's
population.
