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UK police arrest suspected militant on U.S. warrant

Posted on: Sunday, 7 August 2005, 15:43 CDT

By Peter Griffiths

LONDON (Reuters) - British police arrested suspected militant Haroon Rashid Aswad on Sunday on a U.S. extradition warrant which accuses him of setting up a militant training camp in Oregon.

The 30-year-old British citizen was arrested at Northolt military airbase in northwest London after being deported from Zambia and is due to appear in court in central London on Monday.

British police said the U.S. warrant accuses Aswad of plotting with others between October 1999 and April 2000 to train and equip people to fight in Afghanistan.

"He was arrested under a provisional extradition warrant issued by (London's) Bow Street Magistrates Court on behalf of the U.S. authorities early on Sunday," a police statement said.

Aswad was arrested on July 20 in Zambia.

Initial media reports linked him to the July 7 London suicide bombings, but British police say he is not thought to be involved in those attacks.

Interpol said last week it had issued an arrest warrant for Aswad on behalf of the United States, which led to his detention in Zambia.

In Lusaka a senior Zambian security source told Reuters earlier on Sunday that British security officials had flew into Lusaka on Saturday on a "special mission aircraft" to take Aswad to Britain.

"Aswad was finally handed over to British security officials on Saturday evening after the completion of investigations in Zambia," the security source said.

Aswad's extradition, initially expected by diplomats last Wednesday, had been delayed to allow for more investigations into his links with Pakistan, the security source said.

"Investigations on his suspected terrorist links in Pakistan were completed during the week and now he is entirely in the hands of the British," the source said.

"There were discussions during the investigations here in Lusaka to the effect that he might be handed over to the United States by British authorities once they complete further investigations in London."

Zambian officials said last week that British security officials and representatives of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency were in Lusaka and that the British team had been allowed to interrogate Aswad. (reporting by Peter Griffiths)

Source: REUTERS

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