Trabelsi said he had met Bin Laden
Fourteen people have been arrested in http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=2169 after authorities foiled a plot to free an al-Qaeda member arrested in September 2001, officials say.
The suspects, detained in police raids, were described as Islamic militants.
They were seeking to free Tunisian Nizar Trabelsi, jailed in Belgium for planning to attack US targets.
An official said the plot involved explosives and that security was being stepped up in the capital over fears of a “possible attack”.
Belgium hosts the main European Union institutions and Nato headquarters, as well as a raft of multi-national companies.
The arrests were announced by federal prosecutors and officials from the country’s crisis co-ordination centre, at a hastily arranged news conference. “They were planning to use weapons and explosives to free him… These means could be employed for another use,” officials said.
Security was being stepped up at public sites including airports, subway stations and Christmas markets although the authorities said they were not aware of a specific threat.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7155539.stm