Thai Police Nab Suspect In London Bombings

[george]

Update:

Britain wants Algerian suspect

BANGKOK: --Immigration police have received an official request from the British police for the extradition of an Algerian man arrested last week for passport forgery, division chief Pol Maj General Suwat Thamrongsrisakul said yesterday.

However, the officer said British authorities did not say whether they wanted Atamnia Yachine because of his suspected link with the July bombings in London. The 33-year-old had been issued a British court warrant in 1995 after his fingerprints were found on a postal delivery containing 200 passports.

“Whether the extradition will be approved will be ruled by a court decision,” he said.

Yachine was arrested in Soi Nana off Sukhumvit Road on August 23. He was in possession of 186 fake passports, mostly French and Spanish counterfeits. He has been charged with possessing forged documents and overstaying his visa.

Police said his arrest resulted from the August 2 arrest of British Algerian Mahieddine Daikh at Don Muang airport who was found with 452 fake passports of many European countries.

The British police reportedly have substantial evidence against Yachine that he had supplied bogus travel documents to terrorists behind the London attacks, which killed 56 people and wounded more than 700.

--The Nation 2005-08-30

[sriracha john]

Atamnia Yacine, a 33-year-old Algerian man, gestures at a news conference at the immigration office in Bangkok August 29, 2005. Officials on Saturday said British authorities will seek the extradition of Yacine, who may be connected to the July 7 London bombs. Yacine was detained in Thailand's capital on Wednesday and faces charges of possessing 180 fake French and Spanish passports and overstaying his visa. REUTERS

[george]

Thailand baulks at UK extradition of Algerian

BANGKOK: — Citing a lack of evidence, Thai police will not immediately extradite an Algerian man for whom Scotland Yard has issued an arrest warrant as a suspect in last month’s London bombings that left 52 dead, a senior police officer said yesterday.

Over the weekend, British authorities reportedly requested the extradition of Atamnia Yacine, 33, who was arrested on August 24 in Bangkok on charges of possessing 180 fake French and Spanish passports.

“From our own investigation, we still don’t have enough evidence to link him with the bombings, but we’re still looking into it,” said acting Immigration Police Commissioner Leiutenant-General Suwat Thamrongsrisakul.

London’s Bow Street Metropolitan Court on August 24 gave Scotland Yard permission to issue an arrest warrant for Yacine as a suspect in providing false documents to those involved in the London bombings as well as making fake IDs and visas and defrauding British banks of £160,000, British embassy sources in Bangkok said. “The discussions over the extradition process are still under way,” an embassy official said. “I’m sure Britain has a lot of deep evidence,” Suwat said.

--DPA 2005-08-30