House arrest for Qaeda suspect

An Algerian suspected of links to Osama bin Laden and bomb plots in the United States and France has been freed from prison after more than seven years but placed under house arrest while he fights deportation.

The 45-year-old man was released under bail conditions, made public on Thursday, which restrict him to a single, undisclosed address and state that he "shall remain in the residence at all times".

Although his name has been widely publicised in European trials, U.S. extradition proceedings and past media reporting, the man can be identified only as "U" under legal restrictions covering deportation cases against foreign terrorism suspects.

He is the second alleged al Qaeda figure to be freed by Britain in just over two weeks, following the release on June 17 of Jordanian militant preacher Abu Qatada.

While the government says they are dangerous, it lacks enough evidence to put them on trial and has so far failed in legal battles to deport them.

Neither man is allowed to use a computer or mobile phone, or to receive visitors except by approval from the Home Secretary. But U's restrictions go even further than those on Abu Qatada, who can leave home for two hours a day.

Now aged 45, U was arrested at Heathrow airport in February 2001 when attempting to fly to Saudi Arabia on a false passport. The government calls him a "leading organiser and facilitator of terrorist activity aimed mainly at overseas targets", with direct links to bin Laden and other senior al Qaeda figures.

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Ahmed Ressam, convicted of a plot to blow up Los Angeles International Airport on the eve of the millennium, was carrying U's phone number on him when he was arrested with 60 kg (130 lb) of explosives on the Canadian-U.S. border on December 14, 1999.

The United States sought U's extradition but withdrew the request in 2005 after Ressam ceased cooperating with prosecutors building a case against U.

Germany and France described U as the man who incited a December 2000 plot to bomb a Christmas market in the French city of Strasbourg. The two countries convicted four and 10 men, respectively, in connection with that conspiracy.

Authorities say U was a senior al Qaeda trainer in Afghanistan in the late 1990s.

The special tribunal dealing with his case said last year he posed a "significant risk to national security" and had "shown no sign of disavowing his former beliefs or associates".

It added: "There are credible grounds for believing that U has been, and could again become, a senior organiser and facilitator of Islamic international terrorism."

U's lawyers declined to comment on Thursday.

He was among a group of foreign nationals who were at one time imprisoned without charge under sweeping counter-terrorism powers. After these were ruled illegal and expired in 2005, U and Abu Qatada remained in jail pending deportation until they were granted bail.

U is still fighting against deportation in a case due to be decided by the House of Lords.