Terror suspect worked at British nuclear lab

UK Telegraph ^ | 10:30PM BST 10 Oct 2009 | Sean Rayment

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Nuclear physicist Dr Adlene Hicheur, arrested in France after allegedly plotting to carry out al-Qaeda terrorist attacks, had previously worked at a British scientific research laboratory, it can be disclosed.

Dr Hicheur, 32, worked at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Didcot, Oxfordshire, four years ago where he was carrying out research into nuclear physics.

It is understood that MI5 and the Metropolitan Police have been in contact with the French secret service - the Central Directorate of Interior Intelligence - and are trying to establish whether there are any UK links to the terror plot.

The scientist was arrested with his 25-year-old brother Dr. Halim Hicheur on Thursday as he left for work at CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, in the outskirts of Geneva on the Swiss-French border.

The men, who are French Algerian, are being detained in a high security prison near Paris. Christophe Teissier, a judge, said they were being held under suspicion of “criminal activities related to a terrorist group". They can be held for four days before being formally charged.

Investigators described the older man as “very high level” and said that he had been in contact with individuals linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim) - the North African wing of the terrorist network - about potential targets in France.

General Sir David Richards, the new head of the British Army, warned last week that if al-Qaeda terrorists managed to get their hands on nuclear weapons they would use them against Britain and the west.

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, he said: “If al-Qaeda and the Taliban believe they have defeated us - what next?

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But we mustn’t profile them. No... that would be bad.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

“Nuclear physicist Dr Adlene Hicheur”

And what sort of attack would a guy like that be planning?