Police raid London mosque

2003-01-20 09:42

Opheera McDoom

London - British anti-terrorist police in riot gear launched a dramatic raid on a London mosque on Monday and arrested seven people in an operation linked to the discovery of the poison ricin in the capital earlier this month.

Police said they believed the mosque played a role in recruiting suspected "terrorists" and in supporting their operations both in Britain and abroad.

Witnesses said officers in riot gear swarmed out of about 50 police vehicles into Finsbury Park mosque in north London, using ladders to clamber in through windows while helicopters circled overhead in one of the biggest anti-terror swoops in Britain since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

London's Scotland Yard police said officers arrested seven people following the raid on the mosque and two adjacent private homes in a pre-planned intelligence operation.

The mosque is the base of one of Britain's most outspoken Muslim clerics, Abu Hamza al-Masri, who was widely criticised after he praised Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, which Washington blames for the September 11 attacks.

Scotland Yard said the raid was linked to the seizure on January 5 of a small amount of ricin, one of the world's deadliest poisons, in a flat in a district near the mosque, and said intelligence had "made this operation absolutely necessary at this time".

"This operation is linked to arrests made in north and east London on 5/1/03," a police statement said. "Police believe that these premises have played a role in the recruitment of suspected terrorists and in supporting their activity both here and abroad," the statement said.

"It (the raid) was aimed specifically at individuals who have been supporting or engaging in suspected terrorist activity from within the building," it added. Police did not specify whether Masri was among those arrested, but said no chemicals had been found at the mosque premises.

"It was absolutely crazy. I couldn't believe what was happening," Matthew David, 27, who lives next door to the mosque and watched the events unfold, told Reuters.

The raid came as Britain's Charity Commission threatened to evict Egyptian-born Masri from the mosque, claiming he had abused his position by preaching "inflammatory and highly political" speeches, but police said Monday's operation was not linked to this.

The mosque is a registered charity, which gives the Charity Commission the right to intervene in its affairs if it believes the mosque is being used for political purposes.

The commission has given Masri until Monday night to answer its charge he has brought the name and reputation of the mosque's governing charity into disrepute.

Fringe voice

Masri, leader of a group called Supporters of sharia (Islamic law), said on Sunday his lawyers had taken steps to ensure he could continue to preach at the mosque, where several Muslims previously arrested under British terrorism legislation are known to have worshipped.

Moderate Muslim groups dismiss Masri and others such as al-Muhajiroun's founder, Syrian-born Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammad, as fringe voices and accuse the British media of giving radical groups too much attention.

Monday's raid is the latest in a series of high-profile counter-terrorism swoops by police in recent weeks.

Last week a policeman was stabbed to death when officers raided a flat in the northern English city of Manchester. Two north African men have been charged since the raid, one with murder and another with terrorism offences.

Britain has arrested about 200 terror suspects since the September 11 attacks, with most of those detained said to be north African and mainly Algerian. Many have been released without charge though the number held has surged since November.

- Reuters