The Hindu : Police grope for clues in poison scare case

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 10, 2003

International

International

Police grope for clues in poison scare case

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON JAN. 9. Even as one more person of Algerian origin has been arrested in connection with the Ricin scare, police have not been able to establish whether the traces of the deadly poison found in a suspected Al-Qaeda cell in London three days ago were part of a terrorist plot to launch a chemical attack.

Police have also not been able to track down any more of the Ricin, though they are convinced that the small quantity which was seized on Sunday, triggering a terror alert, is part of a larger stock. It is suspected that the rest of the stock may have either been disposed of or smuggled out of the country, possibly to France.

Security sources sought to play down speculation that the poison was intended to kill British leaders saying the motive of the suspects was still not known.

"We should not lose sight of the fact that it may not have been intended for use in Britain. It is not clear what the target was,'' one anti-terrorist officer was quoted as saying.

Fears about a possible assassination plot were raised after experts said that Ricin was not the sort of substance that could be used to cause mass casualties, and had been previously used to poison individuals-the best known case in Britain being that of a Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov who was killed after someone jabbed him with the tip of an umbrella which had been treated with Ricin.

So far, seven men, including two teenaged asylum seekers, have been arrested for their alleged links with a suspected Al-Qaeda cell believed to be engaged in manufacturing Ricin.

The `cell' was located in a north London flat, where the asylum seekers lived.

The alleged involvement of asylum seekers was seized by right-wing tabloids to step up their campaign against refugees by portraying them as fifth columnists.

Police suspect that some of the arrested men might be part of an Algerian `gang' which was busted by the Paris police recently.

In fact, the raid which led to the discovery of Ricin in London was said to have been prompted by a tip-off by the French police.

Travel documents of two of the suspects showed that they had travelled to France in the past two weeks.

One security sources told The Times that it was still not known whether "this operation, involving chemicals was led from Paris or London''.

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