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Yemenis released after false terror alert
September 3, 2010, Friday
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Two Yemeni men arrested on arrival from the United States on suspicion they may have been conducting a dry run for an airline terror attack were released without charge after investigations turned up no evidence to link them to a terror plot, Dutch prosecutors said.
The national prosecutor's office said in a statement on its website on Wednesday that because of the lack of evidence "there is no reason to hold the men any longer."
Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al-Soofi and Hezam al-Murisi were arrested by airport police on Monday in Amsterdam on a United Airlines flight from Chicago following a request from US law enforcement officials.
The whereabouts of the two men following their release was not known. Their lawyers could not be reached for comment.
Prosecutors said an initial test by US authorities on an item of luggage belonging to one of the men "showed the possible presence of a trace of explosives." However "more accurate" later tests did not reveal any signs of explosive material, they said.
"Investigations in the US and the Netherlands have shown that there is no longer any indication of any possible involvement of the men in any crime," the prosecution statement said.
The arrests came just days before the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States. US officials have also been concerned about Americans traveling to Yemen to join al-Qaida.
Al-Soofi's Dutch lawyer Wouter Hendrickx said before news of the release broke that al-Soofi insists he is innocent.
"He says, 'I have no connections to terrorist activities whatsoever,'" Hendrickx said.
The national prosecutor's office said in a statement on its website on Wednesday that because of the lack of evidence "there is no reason to hold the men any longer."
Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al-Soofi and Hezam al-Murisi were arrested by airport police on Monday in Amsterdam on a United Airlines flight from Chicago following a request from US law enforcement officials.
The whereabouts of the two men following their release was not known. Their lawyers could not be reached for comment.
Prosecutors said an initial test by US authorities on an item of luggage belonging to one of the men "showed the possible presence of a trace of explosives." However "more accurate" later tests did not reveal any signs of explosive material, they said.
"Investigations in the US and the Netherlands have shown that there is no longer any indication of any possible involvement of the men in any crime," the prosecution statement said.
The arrests came just days before the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States. US officials have also been concerned about Americans traveling to Yemen to join al-Qaida.
Al-Soofi's Dutch lawyer Wouter Hendrickx said before news of the release broke that al-Soofi insists he is innocent.
"He says, 'I have no connections to terrorist activities whatsoever,'" Hendrickx said.
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