Four still being quizzed under terrorism act

Four men arrested under the Terrorism Act over the past seven days were today still being questioned by anti-terrorist officers.

Four men arrested under the British Terrorism Act over the past seven days were today still being questioned by anti-terrorist officers.

One man was detained by officers from the London Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Branch at premises in central London yesterday, said a Scotland Yard spokeswoman, but she refused to confirm if he was suspected of links with the US atrocities.

A residential address in south east London was also searched by officers, the spokeswoman added.

The man remains in custody at a central London police station, believed to be the high security station at Paddington Green.

‘‘We are not prepared to speculate on any link with the World Trade Centre incidents,’’ said the spokeswoman yesterday.

Sussex Police were also due to resume questioning another man aged 36 who was detained at Gatwick Airport under anti-terrorist legislation on Friday.

The individual, who has not been named, was arrested at the West Sussex airport while travelling from the Middle East to the US.

Another two men also remain in custody after being arrested in Leicester last Tuesday.

The deadline for questioning them under the Terrorism Act expires today.

Another man arrested in the city under the anti-terrorism laws has been returned to France.

The trio detained in Leicester were being questioned over possible links to planned attacks on US targets in Europe, reportedly including a suicide helicopter assault on the US embassy in Paris.

One of the men, French national Kamel Daoudi, 23, was believed to have fled Paris when seven suspected Islamic terrorists were rounded up there last week.

Leicester police would not confirm if Daoudi was the man who has been returned to France.

Forensic experts have been searching a terraced house in Rolleston Street, Leicester, where one of the men was arrested.

The other two men lived in a terraced house in nearby Prospect Hill.

A 44-year-old man arrested in Birmingham last week under the Prevention of Terrorism Act was released from custody without charge on Friday.

Anti-terrorist officers had held the man for the maximum time permitted under the Act after successfully applying to magistrates for two extensions.

A court heard last week that an Algerian pilot arrested by British police was an instructor for four of the suicide hijackers who carried out the terrorist atrocities in the United States.

The hijackers allegedly trained by Lotfi Raissi, 27, included the pilot of the flight which crashed into the Pentagon, Bow Street magistrates court heard.

But it could be years before Raissi faces trial in the US because of Britain’s tortuous extradition procedures.

Raissi, who was living in Colnbrook, Berkshire, close to Heathrow airport, was originally detained on September 21 by Metropolitan Police under the Terrorism Act.

After being held for a week, he was re-arrested today on an international warrant at the request of the US authorities.