Posted on 10/23/2001 8:38:42 PM PDT by Stentor
Egyptian held in anti-terrorist raid By Sean O'Neill and Richard Alleyne (Filed: 24/10/2001)
AN Egyptian dissident with alleged links to the al-Qa'eda terrorist network was arrested in London yesterday.
Yasser al-Siri, 38, who has been sentenced to death in Egypt in his absence for a bomb attack that failed to kill Atef Sedki, the former prime minister, in 1993 but in which a 12-year-old girl died, was taken from a tower block in Maida Vale, west London.
At 7am, teams of police officers in blue overalls raided his flat on the 16th floor where he lives with his wife and daughter. They also searched the block's refuse bins.
Scotland Yard said the arrest was not directly connected with last month's attacks in America and the FBI had not requested it.
Al-Siri, who came to Britain in 1993 claiming asylum, was being held under section 40 of the Terrorism Act 2000. That covers individuals suspected of being involved in the commission, preparation or instigation of terrorist acts in Britain or abroad.
Britain has previously refused requests from Egypt to send al-Siri back to Cairo.
Last week al-Siri issued a statement announcing the death in Afghanistan of Abu Baseer al-Masri, a close aide of Osama bin Laden.
His Islamic Observation Centre, which he describes as a human rights group, has published a statement said to be from Mohammed Atef, the military commander of al-Qa'eda.
Al-Siri is also alleged to have written letters of introduction for two men who, posing as journalists, murdered Ahmed Shah Massoud, the leader of the Afghan opposition Northern Alliance, two days before the attacks on New York and Washington on September 11.
Alexandre Silva, the caretaker of the flats, said: "This is the second time he has been arrested. He is always very friendly. I rarely saw his wife and when I did she was always covered from head to toe."
Another police search team spent the day at the offices and bookshop of the Islamic Observation Centre in Bell Street, near Edgware Road, north London, where they seized computers, disks and documents.
The organisation operates a website which, between illustrations of dripping blood, campaigns against the alleged torture of Islamist prisoners in Egypt and calls for the overthrow of the government of President Mubarak.
Residents and traders said the bookshop appeared to do little business but attracted a group of men who appeared to "hang around out the front talking".
Speaking to The Telegraph last week, al-Siri denied involvement with terrorism. He said: "I am a journalist, if you like - a messenger. I have good contacts and they tell me what is happening in Afghanistan.
"But I am not in any way connected to bin Laden. I do not agree with everything he does."
The Home Office said it was not aware of any new request from Egypt for the extradition of al-Siri.
A spokesman said: "We do not have an extradition agreement with Egypt at the moment. But there are circumstances in which exceptions can be made. Individual cases can be looked at."
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