LONDON – A 45-year-old Algerian described by U.S. prosecutors as the mastermind of an abortive plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport during millennium celebrations in 1999 has been released on tight bail conditions after seven years in British jails, court officials said yesterday.
The release of the unidentified Algerian is the second time in a little more than two weeks that a suspect named by prosecutors as having close ties to Osama bin Laden, but not charged, has been freed on bail in Britain pending a final court ruling on government deportation proceedings.
In June, a 47-year-old Palestinian with Jordanian citizenship, described as having had a major ideological influence within al-Qaeda's European ranks, was released after seven years in jail. That suspect, known by the alias Abu Qatada, was placed under house arrest for 22 hours a day.
British officials said the bail conditions for the Algerian would be similar. In addition to being allowed to leave his home for only two hours a day, mainly for mosque visits, Abu Qatada is required to wear electronic monitoring devices, and is barred from having guests, access to the Internet or a mobile phone. He also is forbidden to meet with people outside his home.
In some instances, terrorist suspects held in Britain without being charged have the right not to be named publicly. In the Algerian's case, this has meant that he has been identified by court officials only by a code name, “U.”
But U.S. prosecutors previously identified him in court papers by an alias, Abu Doha. British newspapers have said he was born in Algeria in 1963 and captured in 2001 at Heathrow Airport in London while trying to board a flight to Saudi Arabia with a false passport.
The release of the two men has highlighted the problems the British authorities face as they try to curb what they have acknowledged is a large and growing Islamist terrorist underground in Britain. Despite volumes of intelligence information implicating the Algerian and Abu Qatada amassed by British and U.S. investigators, and by the authorities in their own countries, British officials say that attempts to build indictments against them have been frustrated by a lack of detailed evidence that would stand up in court.
The other option, seeking to deport the two men to their homelands, has been blocked by British judges on the grounds that the men may be subjected to torture at home, or to prosecution based on evidence obtained by torture, in violation of Europe's human rights charter.
In both cases, appellate judges also ruled that their rights were being violated by indefinite detention and ordered their release.
In a ruling last year, the Special Immigration Appeals Commission in Britain described the Algerian suspect as having had “direct links” with bin Laden and of having held a “senior position” at an al-Qaeda camp for Islamic extremists in Afghanistan in the late 1990s. In their bid to deport the Algerian, the British authorities described him as the leader of an abortive plot to attack a Christmas market in Strasbourg, France, in 2000, in addition to the role he is alleged to have played in the planned Los Angeles attack.
The protections afforded the Algerian and Abu Qatada have upset the Bush administration, with White House officials pressing the British to adopt tighter anti-terrorism laws that reduce the courts' discretion in terrorism cases.
British opinion polls have shown increasing concern about the scope of the terrorist threat.
