Barroso plot suspects deported

THREE alleged members of a radical Dutch Islamic group were arrested and deported to the Netherlands from Portugal because police feared they were planning an attack on then-Prime Minister Jose Barroso, a former Portuguese police official said yesterday.

The Dutch government confirmed that three men arrested on June 11 in Porto were members of a group referred to by Dutch intelligence as the Hofstad Network, which has been linked to the November 2 killing of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh.

The suspects, whose names have not been confirmed by authorities in either country, are believed to have been arrested in a sweep directly after Mr Van Gogh was shot and his throat cut in Amsterdam in the name of radical Islam.