Bangalore doctors charged with terror

LONDON/MELBOURNE: In a day of rapid developments spanning two continents, Bangalore-educated doctors Mohammed Haneef and Sabeel Ahmed were charged on Saturday for their alleged role in botched terror attacks in the UK.

In Australia, the police found a weak reason to hold Haneef: that he was ''reckless'' in giving away his SIM card to his cousins Sabeel and Kafeel in the UK before moving to Australia.

In the UK, the charge against Sabeel were much more serious: that he knew his brother Kafeel, an aeronautical engineer with a PhD degree, would drive the explosive-laden Jeep Cherokee through the main entrance of Glasgow airport and did not inform the police. He is the first Indian to face such a charge in Britain.

Haneef, 27, could have given his SIM to Sabeel as it was still valid for some months, but the Australian Federal Police (AFP) construed it as ''support'' to a terrorist organisation. The SIM card, still bearing details of Haneef's identity, was recovered from one of the Mercedes car bombs found in central London, packed with petrol cans, gas canisters and nails.

With the chargesheet, it's difficult for Haneef, who has been detained and interrogated for the past 12 days, to get out of police custody. If convicted, he could be locked away in jail for up to 15 years.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) chargesheet, presented to a Brisbane court on Saturday after interrogation of the Gold Coast Hospital registrar, said Haneef is being charged with ''supporting a terrorist organisation''. Hopes of his release were raised on Friday when the AFP decided not to extend his detention.

Haneef, who had overlapping years as a medicine student with Sabeel at Bangalore's B R Ambedkar College, had applied for bail and faced a court hearing. But, after an hour-long deliberation, the court was adjourned.

Sabeel, 26, who was detained on June 30 in Liverpool, was charged under the Terrorism Act 2000 and expected to appear before City of Westminster magistrate's court in London on Monday. Iraqi doctor Bilal Abdulla, the passenger who jumped out of the jeep driven by Kafeel just before it exploded in flames, was the first to be charged last week.