Police search Perth home after UK bombs charges

Australian police searched a home in Perth today as an Indian doctor was charged in connection with the attempted bomb attacks in London and Glasgow.

Local media said the search in the state capital of Western Australia was possibly in relation to the case but federal police refused to confirm the reports.

Earlier today an Indian doctor was charged with supporting a terrorist group by giving his mobile phone SIM card to suspects in the failed British bomb plots. He will remain in custody over the weekend as a judge considers bail.

Muhammad Haneef, 27, is the third person to be charged over the botched attacks on London and Glasgow on June 29 and 30. The other two are Bilal Abdullah, who is being held in London on charges of conspiring to set off explosions and Sabeel Ahmed, 26, who is charged with possession of information which could have prevented an act of terrorism.

Australian police charged Haneef with providing support to the bomb plot by giving his SIM card to suspects Sabeel and Kafeel Ahmed when he left Britain for Australia in July 2006.

He faces a maximum 15 years in prison if convicted.

British police tracked a SIM card found on one of the men accused in the failed bomb attacks to Haneef, and alerted their Australian counterparts. Haneef was arrested July 2 while trying to leave the eastern city of Brisbane for India on a one-way ticket.

Prosecutor Clive Porritt said Haneef would have known about the Ahmed brothers’ alleged links to terrorism, since the trio are distant cousins who once shared a house in Britain.

“These are people who he lived with, may have worked with, and certainly associated with,” Porritt told the Brisbane Magistrates Court during a day-long bail hearing.

But defence lawyer Stephen Keim said Haneef only left the SIM card with Sabeel Ahmed so his cousin could take advantage of a special deal on his mobile phone plan.

“For some reason he should have been aware that something was going to happen when the rest of the world didn’t,” Keim said. “It is not suggested that he is anything other than a foolish dupe who should have been more suspicious.”

British prosecutors allege Kafeel was one of two men who crashed a Jeep Cherokee loaded with gas canisters and gasoline into the Glasgow airport then set themselves on fire on June 30.

It was not immediately clear whether the SIM card was used in the foiled attacks.

Magistrate Jacqui Payne adjourned her decision on whether to grant Haneef bail until Monday, leaving him in custody while she considers the large amount of paperwork in the case.

Prosecutors have opposed bail for Haneef, saying he could flee the country if released.

Porritt said Haneef made a “flurry” of phone calls to India on the day of his intended departure, including one to his brother who informed him police had linked him to the bomb plot.

But Haneef claims he was rushing back to India to see his wife and newborn daughter, born June 26, and that he planned to purchase his return ticket in India.

Keim said it would be impossible for his client to leave the country because he has surrendered his passport and his photograph has been plastered on newspapers and television bulletins for the past two weeks.

“Whatever flight risk he represented two weeks ago, he doesn’t represent now,” Keim said.

Prime Minister John Howard urged caution in Haneef’s case, saying he was still entitled to the presumption of innocence.

“But without commenting on his particular circumstances, all of this is a reminder that terrorism is a global threat,” he told reporters in southern Tasmania state.