New
York Times: In October 2009 Swiss police arrested
Adlène Hicheur, a French-Algerian physicist at CERN,
on suspicion of conspiring with al Qaeda in the Islamic
Maghreb. Hicheur was handed over to authorities in France,
where he remains in jail—14 months after his arrest and
still without being charged with any crime. Under French law,
terrorist suspects may be detained without charge for up to
four years. Details about the possible case against Hicheur are
meager. As the
New York Times's Dennis Overbye reports, French police
said at first that Hicheur had been in internet contact with al
Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and that he was plotting to attack
a military base in Annecy, France. In the meantime, while
support for Hicheur's release grows, French authorities have
issued no further statements.
