Australia police end bid to hold suspect

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070713/ap_on_re_au_an/australia_britain_terrorism&printer=1;_ylt=AjJhSMGN8DmRzCPCuC_AT3tK2ocA

Australia police end bid to hold suspect


By MERAIAH FOLEY, Associated Press Writer
Fri Jul 13, 7:09 AM ET



Australian police on Friday resumed their interrogation of an Indian doctor suspected in failed the British terrorism attacks after dropping a request to extend his 11-day detention without charge.

A massive investigation has established links between Muhammad Haneef and at least two of the British suspects, but has not uncovered enough evidence to charge him, according to official documents cited by The Australian newspaper Friday.

Under Australia's counterterrorism laws, police can hold a suspect without charge only with judicial approval. Police dropped their application to extend Haneef's detention on Friday, leaving 12 hours to question him before he must be either charged or released unless police make a new application for detention.

The clock runs only when police are actively interviewing Haneef — meaning that with breaks the deadline could be further off in real time.

Haneef's lawyer, Stephen Keim, said he expected the questioning to be complete in around 24 hours.

Attorney General Philip Ruddock told Sky News that police were "satisfied that they have sufficient information about which they can pursue questioning," and that authorities could seek to detain Haneef again if new information is uncovered during the interrogation.

Haneef, 27, who came to Australia from Britain last year, was arrested July 2 as he tried to leave the eastern Australian city of Brisbane for India on a one-way ticket.

He is a distant cousin of Kafeel and Sabeel Ahmed, two suspects held in Britain in connection with two bomb-laden cars found in London on June 29 and an attack on a Glasgow airport the next day.

The three reportedly shared a house in the British city of Liverpool for up to two years before Haneef moved to Australia, and remained in contact by phone and online messaging after that.

Australian officials have said that Haneef was arrested after his mobile SIM card was found in the possession of one of the British suspects. The documents reportedly identify the suspect as Sabeel Ahmed.

The documents reportedly say police also suspect "a further possible link" between Haneef and Bilal Abdullah, the only person charged over the failed attacks. He is accused of conspiring to set off explosions.

But despite a massive investigation into vast amounts of computer data, phone records and other material seized as evidence, police had not found any evidence linking Haneef to the plot, the newspaper said.

Officials had sought to extend Haneef's detention beyond Friday, but withdrew their application on Friday, a spokesman for the Australian Federal Police said on condition of anonymity in line with policy. The spokesman did not give a reason for dropping the request.

Police already had questioned Haneef for 12 hours after his arrest, but then won permission from the court to pause their interrogation while they sifted through the evidence. Police said they had resumed questioning Haneef on Friday, and had 12 hours left under Australian laws.

Haneef says he was rushing back to India to visit his wife and baby daughter, born June 26. The doctor has denied any involvement in the British plot and was becoming "a bit teary" by his extended detention, one of his lawyers, Peter Russo, told reporters Friday.

"He will be grateful that some progress has been made and we can now start to sort the rest of it out," said Russo, adding that his client also had consented to give his fingerprints and a DNA test to police to assist in the investigations.
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Psalm 82-8: Arise, O God, judge the earth, for You inherit all the nations.