France - Al-Qaeda-linked scientist arrest

French court charges nuclear scientist with terrorist connections

Article published on the 2009-10-13 Latest update 2009-10-13 11:03 TU

Parts of CERN's Large Hadron Collider in April, 2008
(Photo: CERN/Maximilien Brice)

A French anti-terrorist court charged a French nuclear scientist with involvement with a terrorist group Monday, opening a formal investigation into his suspected links with Al-Qaeda. The 32-year-old engineer, who worked on the world’s largest particle accelerator for the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), was arrested Thursday with his 25-year-old brother, who was released without being charged.

The French engineer was charged by French magistrates with "membership of a terrorist group".

Police arrested him Thursday in south-eastern French city of Vienne after intercepting internet communications between him and Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, the North African offshoot of the terrorist organisation.

According to the police, he had expressed a desire to carry out attacks, but had "not got to the stage of carrying out material acts of preparation".

The physicist had been working at the CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, which is in a circular tunnel under the border between France and Switzerland since 2003, though the lab said in a statement that he was working as a contractor for an outside institute, and that his work “did not bring him into contact with anything that could be used for terrorism."

The scientist had not been at the lab for several months, according to CERN spokesperson James Gillies, though many scientists have been away from the lab, as the collider is closed and undergoing repairs.

It shut down after a massive electric failure just days after it started up in September 2008.