Articles About Terrorist Activities

Belgian prosecutors on Friday charged eight people with taking part in “the activities of a terrorist group,” a spokeswoman said, the day after a police swoop on Kurdish terrorist suspects.

Lieve Pellens of the Federal Belgian prosecutor’s office said a Brussels magistrate remanded seven people into custody, out of 12 brought before officials after 18 people were detained up by Brussels police on Thursday.

In the southern town of Charleroi one out of four people brought before a magistrate was also charged and held, the spokesperson said.

The eight, whose identities were not revealed, stand “charged with having taken part in the activities of a terrorist group,” she stated.

The group will appear before legal officials on Tuesday, who will decide whether their detention is to be extended.

Hundreds of Belgian police rounded up high-profile Kurds as part of a Europe-wide investigation into alleged terrorist operations, drawing Kurdish ire and Turkish delight in equal measure.

The arrests included ex-lawmakers, according to Turkish sources, after raids that followed an announcement by France on Wednesday that nine Kurds were charged with terror offences, allegedly recruiting fighters for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.

Similar operations have been conducted in Italy.

Considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States, the PKK took up arms against Ankara in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 40,000 lives.

Ankara has long urged a clampdown on the PKK in Europe, saying that they are financing the terrorist group through drug-trafficking, people smuggling and extortion.

Source:  Hurriyet Daily News
URL: www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=terror-charges-follow-swoop-on-kurds-in-belgium-2010-03-05