Posted on 10/24/2003 9:04:19 AM PDT by knighthawk
STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Swedish authorities made their first arrest under the nation's new terrorism law, detaining a 37-year-old man on suspicion of planning a terror crime, officials said.
Oussama Kassir was arrested Tuesday in Stockholm, Swedish prosecutor Agneta Hilding Qvarnstroem said. She declined to elaborate on allegations.
Kassir was referred to, but not named or charged, in a U.S. federal indictment issued by a grand jury in Seattle in September 2002, U.S. law enforcement officials speaking on condition of anonymity told the Associated Press. U.S. officials said there are no charges against Kassir, but he is of interest to them.
That indictment accused James Ujaama of trying to set up an al-Qaida-linked terrorist training camp in Oregon. He pleaded guilty in April.
Prosecutors allege that Ujaama showed a ranch to two alleged emissaries of Abu Hamza al-Masri, a radical London cleric known for supporting Islamic terrorism, U.S. officials said. They said one of those was Kassir, who identified himself as being employed by Osama bin Laden, officials said.
Kassir was the first person arrested under a new Swedish terrorism law enacted in June which calls for harsher punishments if it can be proven that a crime was an act of terrorism.
Kassir moved to Sweden in 1984 and became a citizen in 1989. He spent several months in prison in 1998 for assaulting a police officer and drug possession.
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