Dutch police arrest suspected terrorist

14 March 2008

ROTTERDAM – Dutch national investigative services arrested a 26-year-old Pakistani national on Thursday night suspected of planning an attack in Western Europe.

He allegedly belongs to an international terrorist network, the national office of the public prosecutor announced Friday.

Justice officials say there are no indications the man was involved in the planning of attacks in the Netherlands. The network he reportedly belongs to has made preparations in the past for a suicide attack in Barcelona.

That attack would reportedly be directed at supporters of assassinated Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

The Spanish authorities announced earlier they had disrupted these preparations with a number of arrests in January. The Spaniards suspected that the terrorist organisation also wanted to commit attacks in France, Portugal, Germany, and the UK.

The national investigation services started the investigation into the Pakistani arrested last night at the end of January, based on information from the general intelligence and security service (AIVD).

The suspect has been in the Netherlands since September 2007 and was enrolled in a 4-year professional education programme, the prosecutor reports. "He didn’t attend many classes for the programme. He mainly worked as a house painter."

Police have had the man under surveillance since the start of the investigation. The prosecution department decided to have him arrested in order to prevent terrorist activities.

The Pakistani will be arraigned in Rotterdam on Monday.