Ryanair hijack gunman may get bail

A Swedish prosecutor will decide on Monday whether a man suspected of planning to hijack a London-bound airliner last month will remain in custody or be released pending further investigation.

Chief Prosecutor Thomas Haeggstroem said today that one of the reasons for keeping Kerim Chatty behind bars was that there had been a risk he could complicate the investigation if released.

“But as investigative measures are taken, this risk is decreasing,” he said in a statement.

A district court in Vasteraas, 60 miles north-west of Stockholm, agreed on September 16 to keep Chatty jailed until at least September 30 on preliminary charges of planning to hijack a plane and illegal possession of a weapon.

Chatty, 29, has pleaded guilty to illegal possession of a weapon but is still denying the hijacking charges, the prosecutor said.

Haeggstroem’s spokesman Magnus Nordangaard said ”suspicions against Chatty remain,” but the prosecutor will wait until Monday to decide whether to keep him in custody pending any further information from Sweden’s national security police agency, SAPO.

“One should not keep people in custody for unnecessary long periods,” Nordangaard said.

Chatty, whose father is Tunisian and mother is Swedish, was arrested at Vaesteraas airport after security officials found a gun in his carry-on luggage.

"He was preparing to board a Ryanair flight on his way to an Islamic conference in Birmingham out what reason Chatty had for bringing a gun aboard the aircraft and if that was his intention,” Haeggstroem said.

The case heightened fears of terrorism and copycat attacks ahead of the first anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.