Three charged over alleged Tube terror plot

THREE men are due in court today charged in connection with an alleged plot to carry out a terrorist attack which police sources say involved the London Underground.

But Scotland Yard refused to comment officially on claims in the Sunday Times newspaper that the attack involved releasing cyanide gas on a crowded Tube carriage.

The men, believed to be north Africans, were remanded in custody by magistrates this week, charged under Section 57 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

Rabah Chekat-Bais, 21, Rabah Kadris, in his mid-30s, and Karim Kadouri, 33, all of no fixed abode, were charged over the possession of articles for the preparation, instigation and commission of terrorism acts.

Unemployed Chekat-Bais appeared before the Bow Street Magistrates Court, central London, last Monday and Kadris and Kadouri, both also unemployed, appeared in court last Tuesday.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said there was no evidence bombs or poison gas were involved.

“It’s excited the press. I’ll leave them to sell their newspapers,” he told BBC Television. “It doesn’t appear that there’s any evidence whatsoever there was going to be a gas attack or indeed use of bombs regarding the three people who’ve been arrested.”

News of the charges came after British Prime Minister Tony Blair said security services were warning on an almost daily basis of terrorist threats to a wide range of targets in Britain. But he said if he had acted on every piece of raw intelligence during his time as premier he would have shut down roads, rail links, airports, stations, shopping centres, factories and military installations “on many occasions”.

It also follows a statement accidentally released by the British Home Office spelling out in lurid detail a series of possible al-Qaida tactics, ranging from dirty bombs to attacks on planes, boats and trains.

But the statement was quickly withdrawn and replaced with a more measured document, leading to criticism of the Government for unnecessarily spreading anxieties.

The Sunday Times report said six north African men had been arrested on Saturday November 9 by Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorist branch in connection with the plot. Sunday Times assistant editor Nicholas Rufford said: “There were six arrests originally, three people were released, only three were charged. And those have been charged under section 57 of the Act which relates to carrying articles which could be used for terrorist purposes.

“My understanding is that no chemical or bomb-making equipment was recovered. So that suggests the equipment or the materials may still be out there and as far as I understand the investigation is continuing.