FED: More arrests over terror links expected

AAP General News (Australia)
04-16-2004
FED: More arrests over terror links expected

SYDNEY, April 16 AAP - More people suspected of having links to terrorists will be
found in Australia after this week's arrest of a 21-year-old Sydney student, authorities
said today.

Izhar Ul Haque, a medical student from Glenwood in Sydney's west, was charged yesterday
with training with the Pakistan-based terror group, Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET).

Attorney General Philip Ruddock said today that Ul Haque had not been the target of
the police investigation that led to his arrest.

"It was part of a wider investigation in which the Commonwealth is involved that these
alleged crimes came to notice," he said.

NSW premier Bob Carr said his government had been warned to prepare for more arrests.

"We were told that there were arrests pending and we should have prison places available,"

he said.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said a wider investigation was under way.

"People who may have some association with terrorism are being tracked down," he said.

Mr Downer also said Australian Federal Police would examine whether Ul Haque had links
to French terrorist suspect Willie Brigitte, who is being held by French authorities on
suspicion of terrorism after he was deported from Australia last October.

"He probably has some linkages I would imagine, that is for sure," Mr Downer told ABC Radio.

"But whether those are within Australia that'll be something obviously the Federal
Police will be investigating."

Ul Haque, who came to Australia in 1998 and attended Pennant Hills and North Sydney
Boys high schools, is the first person to be charged with training with a terrorist organisation.

If proven, Ul Haque could face 25 years in jail.

The third-year student at the University of NSW faced Central Local Court yesterday
afternoon and was remanded to appear again on May 5.

He was moved to the maximum security Goulburn Jail today where he was being kept in segregation.

Ul Haque's lawyer Adam Houda said his client was innocent.

"Our client is an innocent young man and a person of good character who hasn't hurt
anyone," Mr Houda said in a statement today.

"Nor has he ever possessed an intention to unlawfully hurt anyone."

Sujeet Rana, a former school friend of Ul Haque, today described the accused man as a "nice guy".

"He was a really nice guy, he was quiet, but he hung around with us all the time, he'd
be good for a laugh, he was religious but not fanatically," Mr Rana told Channel 10.

Ul Haque is alleged to have trained with LET in January and February last year in Pakistan.

LET is the same group Brigitte and Australian terrorist suspects David Hicks and Mamdouh
Habib are believed to be linked to.

Hicks and Habib are still being held without charge at the US military base Guantanamo
Bay in Cuba.

AAP nf/mo/jlw

KEYWORD: TERROR AUST NIGHTLEAD

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