London cops nab three men

2005-08-06 09:02

Robert MacPherson

London - Three more people faced terrorist-related charges in London on Saturday, a day after Prime Minister Tony Blair rolled out tough new measures to crack down on Islamist extremism in Britain.

Like three others who appeared in court this week, the three men have been charged under the Terrorism Act 2000 for failing to give information to police investigating last month's London bombings.

Shadi Sami Abdel Gadir, 22, and Omar Nagmeloin Alamaboul, 20, from Brighton on England's south coast, and Mohamed Kabashi, 23, of no fixed address, were to appear in a central London court on Saturday.

Fifty-six people were killed, including four apparent suicide bombers, in the July 7 attacks on three Underground subway trains and a double-decker bus - attacks linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organisation.

Four prime suspects are meanwhile in custody, including an Ethiopian-born Briton who was arrested in Rome, for allegedly trying - unsuccessfully - to repeat the atrocities on July 21.

Speaking at a Downing Street news conference before an imminent summer break, Blair unveiled around a dozen proposals to crack down on radical Muslim clerics, many of them non-Britons, who preach terrorism or foment hatred.

"Let no one be in any doubt that the rules of the game are changing," the prime minister said. "Coming to Britain is not a right and even when people have come here, staying here carries with it a duty. That duty is to share and support the values that sustain the British way of life." The new measures - ranging from an outright ban on two radical Muslim groups to a long list of views for which foreign nationals can be ejected from Britain - drew a mixed initial response.

The mainstream Muslim Council of Britain welcomed them on the whole, but the civil rights group Liberty said: "The fundamental values of a democracy cannot be changed because we are provoked by terrorists."

- AFP