Friday, February 29, 2008

Three charged with

financing terrorist activity


Norway's Police Security Agency (PST) has charged three persons with financing terrorist activities overseas. More arrests have been made in Sweden as well.

Jørn Holme, head of the national security police agency PST, has been trying to get more insight into extremist Islamic activity in Norway.

PHOTO: SARA JOHANNESSEN/SCANPIX

Related stories:

The three suspects were arrested at various addresses in Oslo and have been formally charged, reported the police unit PST (Politiets sikkerhetstjeneste) on Thursday.

PST wrote in a press statement that the agency will seek remand custody for at least one if not all the suspects.

PST wouldn't immediately release any details about the three persons charged, or what led to their arrests. VG Nett reported that the three are originally from Somalia.

Swedish Security Service also arrested three persons Thursday morning and charged them with financing terrorism as well. A Swedish security police spokesman confirmed the arrests in both Norway and Sweden were part of a coordinated action, reports Swedish news bureau TT.

"Three people have been taken into custody," said Maria Martinsson, a spokeswoman for the Swedish Security Service. "They are suspected of preparing terrorist activity and of financing terrorism." She said the three men were detained at various addresses in the Stockholm area. All are reportedly Swedish citizens.

The normally secretive Jørn Holme, chief of the PST, has recently been on a press offensive of sorts, claiming in newspaper Aftenposten that terrorists have actively tried to recruit young Norwegian Muslims and that money was suspected of being sent out of the country to finance terrorist attacks overseas.

Holme also spoke of "older, manipulative Islamic extremists" who were trying to motivate young Muslims into taking part in jihad in foreign countries.

Holme called the situation "more complex" than earlier, and said it therefore was necessary for PST to warn of the activity and make Norwegians aware of it.

"We need to counter this activity in the community," he said. "We rely on the cooperation of all those who have information about what's happening in extremist Islamic circles."

Aftenposten's reporter
Kjetil Olsen

Aftenposten English Web Desk
Nina Berglund


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