Date:25/08/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/08/25/stories/2006082508350100.htm

Front Page

12 detained by Dutch authorities to be freed

They were not planning an attack: prosecutors

AMSTERDAM: The Dutch authorities will release all the 12 passengers arrested on a United States' Northwest Airlines plane bound for Mumbai on Wednesday, after concluding that they were not planning an attack, prosecutors said on Thursday.

``From the statements of suspects and witnesses, no evidence could be brought forward that these men were about to commit an act of violence,'' a prosecution statement said, adding that police searched for explosives on the plane but found none.

Prosecutors said at a news conference the crew raised the alarm after the men handed each other mobile phones and laptops during the flight and refused to follow their instructions.

Police at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport arrested the 12 passengers, after the 273-seat DC10-30 plane turned back, accompanied by two Dutch F-16 fighter aircraft.

Some passengers on the plane said the air marshals intervened after the men began fidgeting with mobile phones and plastic bags. ``I thought that the men were celebrating a stag party,'' Simon Balakrishnan, a 43-year-old passenger from India, told a Dutch daily.

``After the plane took off, a mobile phone rang and the men started cheering,'' he said. ``They kept exchanging plastic bags and started laughing."

Some other passengers described the men as between 25 and 35 years old and speaking Urdu.

CNN-IBN reported on Thursday that the 12 men were India-born and their current residences were not clear.

`Not terror-related'

``It does not appear to be terror-related,'' Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner told journalists in The Hague earlier. He said there was no evidence that the 12 persons were involved in terrorism.

"From what is known until now, it does not appear that this is terrorism-related," he said.

Mr. Donner declined to say why the men remained in custody. But he said the reason the incident was treated so seriously was "connected with their behaviour." — Agencies

Some passengers return

PTI reports from Mumbai:

Some passengers of the flight, who were stranded at the Amsterdam airport on Wednesday, landed in Mumbai on Thursday night.

Though the airline has not yet officialy confirmed the number, a passenger told PTI that 18 passengers had arrived from Amsterdam via Singapore.