Swedish suspect went to flight school in U.S

The New York Times ^ | Monday, September 2 | Alan Cowell

[USA21]

Swedish suspect went to flight school in U.S.

LONDON The Swedish authorities say that a man arrested at a Swedish airport with a gun in his carry-on luggage as he tried to board a London-bound flight had studied at an aviation school in the United States and had a criminal record. However, almost three days after the arrest of the man, identified as Kerim Chatty, 29, a senior Swedish official denied reports attributed to Swedish intelligence and police circles that he had planned to seize the plane and attack a U.S. embassy in Europe in a conspiracy with four other men. There was no word on whether the man was suspected of being linked to Al Qaeda. .

The reports nonetheless deepened apprehension among European security officials that, days before the commemoration of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, anti-Western militants might be planning copycat attacks on the European side of the Atlantic. Margaretha Linderoth, Sweden's security police director, denied that Chatty was part of such a conspiracy. "It's false information," she said.

. Chatty trained at the North American Institute of Aviation in Conway, South Carolina, near Myrtle Beach. He was dismissed from the school's pilot program for poor performance, a top school official said. The flight school specializes in training foreign pilots, particularly from Scandinavia, who arrive with special visas allowing them to attend school and later work in the United States. School officials go to Scandinavia every year to test and recruit potential students, according to the school's Web site.

. Chatty was arrested Thursday as he tried to board a flight operated by Ryanair, a low-fare carrier, out of a small airport in Vasteras, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Stockholm.

. He was identified as belonging to a group of about 20 Muslims on the plane who were heading for a Muslim conference in Birmingham, England.

. Police must meet deadline

. Swedish police scrambled Sunday to meet a legal deadline to press charges against the suspect, Reuters reported from Stockholm.

. Prosecutors have until midday Monday to convince a court to remand Chatty in custody for two more weeks or free him. The court will announce its decision Monday, and formal charges will follow later if a case is made.

. "It's hectic," said Ulf Palm, a police spokesman. "There are many things we have to do. We do not want him to be set free on Monday." .

The manager of Vasteras airport said the handling of the incident showed security checks were functioning as they should. .

But the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter said Sunday that checks on small domestic flights were inadequate or non-existent, and it called for European Union rules requiring stricter checks to be carried out. .

In the United States, James Lamb, the assistant chief flight instructor with the South Carolina aviation school, said an FBI agent had visited to ask for information about Chatty, who took lessons there from September 1996 to April 1997 and had been "terminated" for poor performance and lack of progress. .

"He was a very substandard student," Lamb said. .

At the hearing in Vasteras on Monday, prosecutors will lay out the case on which they plan to bring charges. The court will then be cleared as the judge hears from the suspect and his lawyer before a decision on whether to remand Chatty for further investigations, according to Palm, the police spokesman. .

Prosecutors then have a further two weeks to complete their case. Palm said Chatty would probably be charged with planning to hijack a plane or illegal possession of firearms and possibly further charges. He could face life imprisonment if found guilty. .

Palm said Chatty was not being questioned by police Sunday but was meeting his lawyer. The police were concentrating on gathering evidence. .

Chatty's father, Sadok, said the police had raided his apartment in a town between Stockholm and Vasteras and took away a file of documents belonging to his son. Sources said that agents from the CIA and from Britain's MI5 counterespionage service were helping with the investigation. This was denied by Linderoth, but Palm said the police were now cooperating with foreign authorities.

. Swedish investigators did not believe that Chatty or any possible accomplices were connected to Al Qaeda, the sources said. Instead, they believe a copycat attack was being planned. .

"There is nothing to suggest that this is Al Qaeda," a police source said. "It's more likely that they are some kind of 'wannabes.'"

[USA21]

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[Cicero]

He was identified as belonging to a group of about 20 Muslims on the plane who were heading for a Muslim conference in Birmingham, England.

England is a cesspit of Muslim extremists. They seem to have returned to their old ways of sheltering terrorists. The most famous of these sheltered terrorists were Marx and Engels.