Posted on 12/06/2002 6:39:54 PM PST by knighthawk
A Muslim man once suspected of planning to hijack a flight to England has said he was "stupid" to try to board a plane with a gun in his toiletry bag.
Kerim Chatty, a Swede of Tunisian origin, sparked a security alert at Vasteras airport outside Stockholm in August when the weapon was found as he headed for a London-bound plane with 189 people on board.
He was originally held on suspicion of planning to hijack the plane but the investigation was dropped for lack of evidence.
On Friday, Chatty, 29, pleaded guilty in court to two counts of illegal possession of firearms and faces up to four years in jail when he is sentenced later this month.
He told the court he had forgotten that he had a gun concealed in his toiletry bag which he was carrying, possibly on his way to attend a Muslim conference in Birmingham in the English Midlands.
"It was stupid to bring a weapon through the security check," he said.
"I was under a great deal of stress."
During the investigation police found a second gun in Chatty's possession.
Flying lessons
Chatty was arrested days before the first anniversary of the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington, when planes were hijacked and deliberately crashed into buildings.
Like some of those hijackers, Chatty had taken flying lessons in the US.
A fitness fanatic and keen Thai boxer, Chatty was also said to have dabbled in films and the criminal underworld before converting to Islam in a jail cell.
He has previous convictions for assault and theft.
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'I love bin Laden ... I hate Bush': Man connected to Ujaama, hijacking suspect speaks out
By David Heath Seattle Times staff reporter
A Swedish citizen suspected of conspiring with a former Seattle man to open a terrorist training camp in Oregon also has links to a Swede suspected of planning to hijack an airliner in Europe last week.
Oussama Kassir, 36, an unemployed engineer in Stockholm, was an unnamed and uncharged co-conspirator in the indictment of James Ujaama last week. Federal officials say Kassir and another man went to Bly, Ore., with Ujaama in late 1999 to scout out a ranch as a training camp for the al-Qaida terrorist network.
Authorities have not connected Kassir to Thursday's arrest of Kerim Sadok Chatty, who was stopped in Vaesteraas, Sweden, after a handgun was found in his carry-on bag as he was boarding a Ryanair flight to London. Chatty, 29, who trained at an American flight school in 1996, was being held yesterday pending charges for allegedly planning to hijack the Boeing 737.
But Kassir admits he is a friend of Chatty's and says he taught Chatty to pray while they were in a Swedish prison together in the late 1990s. The two were close, Kassir said, and he last talked to Chatty about a month ago.
In an interview with The Seattle Times yesterday, Kassir said Chatty is not a terrorist and that his friend probably just forgot that he had a gun in his luggage.
"The boy is nice. I don't think he would do that," Kassir said.
Kassir insisted that he, too, is being falsely accused of working for al-Qaida. The indictment of Ujaama states that one of Ujaama's colleagues — Kassir, authorities say privately — bragged publicly in Bly of being a "hit man" for Osama bin Laden.
Kassir denied the allegation and said repeatedly that his life is now in danger because of it.
"I am not the hit man of Osama bin Laden," he said. "The hit man would never be living in Sweden. He would be at his side. This is not good for my life."
Kassir added, though, that he is "a supporter" of bin Laden and his Islamic terrorist group.
"I said I am not al-Qaida. I am a supporter. I love al-Qaida. I love Osama bin Laden."
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