Swedish, Danish Courts Hold Suspected Terrorists
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By Charles Duxbury
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
STOCKHOLM (Dow Jones)--Courts in both Denmark and Sweden Thursday ruled to detain the men accused of planning a terrorist attack on the Copenhagen office of Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten while state prosecutors build their cases against the suspects.
A district court in Glostrup, near Copenhagen, decided to hold three men, named in the Swedish press as Swedish citizens Munir Awad, 29, and Omar Abdalla Aboelazm, 30, and Tunisian citizen and resident of Sweden Mounir Ben Mohamed Dhahri, 44, for four weeks earlier Thursday.
Meanwhile in Sollentuna, on the edge of Stockholm, Attunda district court granted Chief Prosecutor Tomas Lindstrand's request to hold 37 year-old Sahbi Zalouti until charges are brought January 13.
All four detainees are suspected of "preparing terrorist crimes" while the three men held in Denmark are also suspected of illegal possession of a weapon.
"The investigation has really started now, several people are arrested and are in custody," Lindstrand told Dow Jones Newswires after the hearing.
Had Zalouti been released by the court there would have been risk of him continuing his illegal activity and damaging the investigation, Lindstrand added.
"The investigation will continue in a tradition manner with various interviews and so on," said Lindstrand, who wouldn't comment on a possible date for trial.
In court Zalouti, 37, was dressed in a green jumper and denied all charges through his lawyer Elisabet Audell.
The Swedish foreign ministry confirmed Thursday that two of the Swedes arrested in Denmark have previously been imprisoned abroad and they have received consular assistance from the ministry.
Anders Jorle, spokesman at the Swedish foreign ministry, told Dow Jones Newswires that Munir Awad was arrested together with the former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Mehdi Muhammed Ghezali in Pakistan.
"Awad and Ghezali travelled to Pakistan in August 2009 without visas and were in areas that by Pakistani authorities were regarded as terrorist territory. They were arrested on suspicion of terrorist activity," Jorle said, adding that Awad had been arrested under similar circumstances in Ethiopia in 2007.
Awad was not charged with any crimes when returning to Sweden from Pakistan in 2009 and from Ethiopia in 2007.
"He had not committed any crimes in Sweden," Jorle said.
Zalouti has been arrested in Pakistan and has received consular assistance from the Swedish foreign ministry, Jorle said. He was not able to say when.
A fifth suspect in the terrorist plot, a 26-year-old Iraqi citizen with permanent residence in Denmark, is to be released, Danish police said.
The man's role was limited to securing an apartment for Awad, Aboelazm and Dhahri, who traveled from Sweden to Denmark with the suspected intention of breaking into Jyllands-Posten office with the aim of killing "as many people as possible", according to comments from the Danish Security and Intelligence Service General Director Jakob Scharf at a press briefing Wednesday.
Jyllands-Posten, a daily broadsheet, caused an uproar in 2005 when it published a series of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, whose visual portrayal is forbidden under Islamic tradition.
The newspaper has been the target of a number of terrorist plots.
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By Charles Duxbury
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
STOCKHOLM (Dow Jones)--Courts in both Denmark and Sweden Thursday ruled to detain the men accused of planning a terrorist attack on the Copenhagen office of Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten while state prosecutors build their cases against the suspects.
A district court in Glostrup, near Copenhagen, decided to hold three men, named in the Swedish press as Swedish citizens Munir Awad, 29, and Omar Abdalla Aboelazm, 30, and Tunisian citizen and resident of Sweden Mounir Ben Mohamed Dhahri, 44, for four weeks earlier Thursday.
Meanwhile in Sollentuna, on the edge of Stockholm, Attunda district court granted Chief Prosecutor Tomas Lindstrand's request to hold 37 year-old Sahbi Zalouti until charges are brought January 13.
All four detainees are suspected of "preparing terrorist crimes" while the three men held in Denmark are also suspected of illegal possession of a weapon.
"The investigation has really started now, several people are arrested and are in custody," Lindstrand told Dow Jones Newswires after the hearing.
Had Zalouti been released by the court there would have been risk of him continuing his illegal activity and damaging the investigation, Lindstrand added.
"The investigation will continue in a tradition manner with various interviews and so on," said Lindstrand, who wouldn't comment on a possible date for trial.
In court Zalouti, 37, was dressed in a green jumper and denied all charges through his lawyer Elisabet Audell.
The Swedish foreign ministry confirmed Thursday that two of the Swedes arrested in Denmark have previously been imprisoned abroad and they have received consular assistance from the ministry.
Anders Jorle, spokesman at the Swedish foreign ministry, told Dow Jones Newswires that Munir Awad was arrested together with the former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Mehdi Muhammed Ghezali in Pakistan.
"Awad and Ghezali travelled to Pakistan in August 2009 without visas and were in areas that by Pakistani authorities were regarded as terrorist territory. They were arrested on suspicion of terrorist activity," Jorle said, adding that Awad had been arrested under similar circumstances in Ethiopia in 2007.
Awad was not charged with any crimes when returning to Sweden from Pakistan in 2009 and from Ethiopia in 2007.
"He had not committed any crimes in Sweden," Jorle said.
Zalouti has been arrested in Pakistan and has received consular assistance from the Swedish foreign ministry, Jorle said. He was not able to say when.
A fifth suspect in the terrorist plot, a 26-year-old Iraqi citizen with permanent residence in Denmark, is to be released, Danish police said.
The man's role was limited to securing an apartment for Awad, Aboelazm and Dhahri, who traveled from Sweden to Denmark with the suspected intention of breaking into Jyllands-Posten office with the aim of killing "as many people as possible", according to comments from the Danish Security and Intelligence Service General Director Jakob Scharf at a press briefing Wednesday.
Jyllands-Posten, a daily broadsheet, caused an uproar in 2005 when it published a series of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, whose visual portrayal is forbidden under Islamic tradition.
The newspaper has been the target of a number of terrorist plots.
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