Dirty bomb 'plot' foiled
2004-09-26 15:36
London - Police gained more time on Sunday to question four terror suspects
arrested after a newspaper claimed it had foiled a "dirty bomb"
plot.
London's metropolitan police said a magistrate approved an
application to hold the four men until Ocober 1.
The men were detained on Friday under the Terrorism Act on
suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of
terrorism.
Under the legislation, any detention period longer than
two days must be approved by a magistrate.
Police may get extensions to question suspects for up to 14 days
before they must be charged or released.
Officers said three men were arrested on Friday at a hotel at Brent
Cross in north London and a fourth man was arrested later at his
home.
News of the World
Police said they were acting on information supplied by the News
of the World, the Sunday tabloid which is Britain's largest-selling
newspaper.
The newspaper said reporter Mazher Mahmood had been in touch
with a man who said he represented someone from Saudi Arabia who
was seeking to purchase red mercury, a substance that many
scientists doubt actually exists.
The reporter said he was told that the unidentified Saudi was
willing to pay £300 000 for 1kg of the substance.
Police declined to comment on the
News of the World account.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, black marketeers
have been peddling substances they call red mercury, apparently
passing it off to buyers as a highly radioactive compound
purportedly developed in Soviet nuclear facilities.
Samples that have turned up in Europe have proved to be bogus,
however, and many scientists and law enforcement officials say the
substance does not exist - or is far less dangerous than it has
been made out to be.
- AP