French Islamic terror suspects under investigation

Four alleged members of a suspected Islamic terror cell dismantled in France were placed under investigation yesterday for terrorism financing and other charges, judicial officials said.

Placing the four men under investigation – a step short of formal charges - came after four days of police questioning. They were also suspected of association to a terrorist group, said the officials speaking on customary condition of anonymity.

The men were among nine people arrested in police raids on Monday to the west and northwest of Paris. The sweep came after a tip from Algerian authorities, who informed the French that a suspect they had recently arrested spoke of planned attacks by the cell in France.

The four suspects include Safe Bourada, the cell’s suspected leader who was a previously convicted Islamic militant, and three of his accomplices.

Authorities have said they believe that the alleged cell’s targets included the Paris subway, one of the French capital’s airports and the headquarters of the police intelligence and counterterrorism agency known as the DST.

But a judicial official yesterday said that none of the four suspects had provided information that confirmed attacks were being planned on French soil.

Bourada’s lawyer denied that striking France was the plan.

“They never wanted to commit terrorist acts in France,” said Alexandre Duval-Stalla, who described the group under Bourada’s tutelage as having a “vocation that is both religious and combatant.”

The four suspects are believed to have financed their activities through small crimes and black market work, judicial officials said. One of them opened an Internet café in the town of Trappes, west of Paris.

One of the suspects alluded to planning acts in the Middle East, said the judicial official, who did not name the country and said “at this stage, it was only talk.”

Five of those arrested were released after questioning.

Officials said some of the suspects had travelled to Lebanon in recent months. Le Figaro newspaper reported that the trips were taken to learn how to handle explosives.

Bourada was among 36 Islamic militants sentenced in February 1998 for providing support for bomb attacks that terrorised France in 1995. He received the maximum 10-year sentence, but won early release in 2003. Police say he had been under surveillance ever since.

In 2004, Bourada went to Egypt, where he learned Arabic before returning to France this month, his lawyer said.