Police continue to quiz 14 men in terrorism probe

POLICE investigating an alleged network of terrorist recruiters were yesterday continuing to question 14 men, including a former associate of the radical Islamic cleric Abu Hamza.

Abu Abdullah, a one-time aide of the now jailed preacher, is understood to have been among those arrested during overnight raids on Friday in South and East London, including at a Chinese restaurant.

Detectives were on Sunday given more time to question the men, aged 17 to 48, who were detained after months of surveillance by police and MI5.

The investigation, into the alleged recruitment, radicalisation and training of young British Muslim men for terrorism, is focusing on an Islamic school in East Sussex and more than a dozen homes across the capital.

Hamza, jailed for seven years in February after being convicted of a string of race hate and terror charges, is said to have stayed at the school in Mark Cross, Crowborough. However, he was asked to leave after staff became concerned about his “strange behaviour”.Abdullah, said to be a former spokesman for Hamza, was arrested only days after The Sunday Times published an interview with him in which he described how he would “love” to kill British soldiers in Afghanistan. He also reportedly described the July 7 suicide bombers as “my honourable brothers in Islam” and said the attacks, in which 52 people died, were “a wake-up call”.

The Jameah Islamiyah secondary school is often used at weekends as a retreat for Muslim families from London. It also emerged yesterday that the school has been used by Sussex Police for training purposes. Officers have been sent on courses at the Jameah Islamiyah secondary school to learn about the Muslim faith and understand more about their communities, the Daily Mirror reported.

Meanwhile, eight British Muslims were remanded in custody yesterday after appearing in court in connection with a suspected plot to blow up trans-atlantic airliners. The men, aged between 19 and 28, appeared at London’s Old Bailey central criminal court via videolink from Belmarsh maximum security prison.They were remanded in custody for a further two weeks.