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http://www4.rtbf.be/rtbf_2000/bin/view_something.cgi?type=article&id=0133411_article&menu=default&pub=RTBF.PORTAIL%2fPORTAIL.FR.la_taille.SP.BELG

The federal police force challenged Wednesday evening in its residence of Deinze a 45 year old Iraqi who could be the author of the toxic letters discovered Tuesday and Wednesday . This man, who is not known justice, was placed at the disposal of an examining magistrate of Ghent which will have to decide if it puts it under warrant for arrest, indicated Thursday evening the federal parquet floor.

Its spokesman, Lieve Pellens, did not want to say if this man had accomplices or if it were related to a terrorist group. Wednesday, Mrs. Pellens had stressed that the targets of the 10 letter bombs as well as the signatures "The International Islamic Society" pushed the federal parquet floor to check the track islamist. The federal parquet floor did not want to reveal Thursday evening how the police force identified this man.

At the time of the searching carried out at this man Wednesday evening, the police officers took along in tight bags a series of exhibits, of which diaries and notebooks. They were to be examined Thursday by police officers of the Cell terrorism of the SJA (legal service of district) of Brussels.

When those opened the bags, Thursday towards 14h00, they felt a little later of irritations to the throat, the skin and the eyes in spite of their protective gloves. They had to receive care at the hospital which they could leave in the evening, the legal director of the SJA, Glenn Audenaert indicated.

The Tower IBM, which shelters in particular the buildings of the SJA, was evacuated to prevent that the substances do not gain all the building via the system of air conditioning. The building was checked Thursday at the end of the afternoon by a company specialized in decontamination: only the stage of the Cell terrorism could not be occupied Friday morning.

The symptoms felt by these police officers are the same ones as those which felt the poisoned people Tuesday and Wednesday by the ten letter bombs with the toxic powder, which reinforces the suspicions against the Iraqi.

Five of the letter bombs had reached their recipients: the harbour office of the wearing of Antwerp, the airport of Ostend, grafts it supreme court of appeal and the embassies of Great Britain and Saudi Arabia. Five others - addressed to the cabinet of the Prime Minister, with the ministries for Justice and the Foreign Affairs, with the court of first authority of Brussels and with the embassy of the United States - had been intercepted in the postal sorting offices of Deinze and Ghent.

Thorough analyses of toxicology were carried out on the seven contents of these ten letters. They confirmed the presence of adamsite, so known under the name of chloryde of phénarsazine, a substance in particular used in pesticides. This flammable product can, once set ablaze, to emit a gas which can be mortal, specified Mr. Audenaert.

Examinations will have to determine if the substances discovered at the Iraqi are identical. A graphologist will analyze his writing in addition in order to determine if he is well the script writer of the ten intercepted trapped envelopes Tuesday and merdredi.

The first examinations had shown that only one person, having tried to modify her writing, had written the address on these ten envelopes. Fifteen people - including six police officers and of the employees of the embassy of Saudi Arabia - had been slightly poisoned by their contents.

The sending of such letter bombs can be qualified voluntary aggravated assault with premeditation and the aggravating circumstance that there was disability. The sorrows envisaged go from 6 months to 3 years.