British Authorities Charge Fourth Suspect in Gordon Brown Assassination Plot
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British police charged a fourth man Monday in connection with alleged threats to assassinate Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Lancashire Constabulary said in a statement that 24-year-old Muhammad Ali Mumtaz Ahmad was charged with possessing an item suspected of being useful for the preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism.
A police spokeswoman said the charges relate to the alleged threat to kill the prime minister. She spoke anonymously in line with force policy.
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Media reports said the men were being held in connection with a Web site posting signed "al-Qaida in Britain" that threatened the life of Brown and his predecessor Tony Blair. The statement, posted on a radical Web site earlier this year, demanded the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and the release of some Muslim inmates from Britain's high-security Belmarsh prison.
Police arrested two of the men, Ishaq Kanmi and Abbas Iqbal, on Aug. 14 at Manchester Airport in northern England, reportedly as they were about to board a flight to Finland. The men and Iqbal's brother Ilya Iqbal — arrested in Accrington 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of the airport — were charged with terror offenses related to the same case last week.
The men were described by police as being Asian, which in a British context suggests they are of Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi descent.
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Ahmad and the other charged men are from the northern English city of Blackburn.
Greater Manchester Police on Monday were granted a warrant for further detention to question a fifth man arrested on Aug. 26 in the central English town of Derby.
Ahmad will appear at Westminster Magistrates Court Tuesday.