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Fifth suspect arrested over 'Islamic internet plot to kill Gordon Brown'
Last updated at 11:57am on 27.08.08
A fifth person has been arrested in connection with threats to kill the Prime Minister which were posted on an Islamic website.
The 29-year-old man from Derby is being questioned by police in connection with the plot.
The latest arrest follows that of a white Muslim convert, named locally as Mohammed Ali, who was seized in a dawn raid at his flat above a butcher's shop in Blackburn on Tuesday.
His arrest came ten days after three other men were held by anti-terror police over threats to assassinate Gordon Brown and his predecessor, Tony Blair.
Dawn raid: A policeman stands outside the house where a fourth man was arrested over terror offences
They include two brothers arrested as they were about to board a flight to Finland at Manchester Airport.
A third was taken into custody shortly afterwards at a warehouse in Accrington.
Before his arrest Ali, 24, who is thought to have converted to Islam about four years ago, had told how he fell out with the two brothers because their views were 'too extreme'.
Anti-terror teams have spent months investigating the warnings on a recognised jihadi website in January by a group calling itself 'Al Qaeda in Britain'.
The statement also demanded the withdrawal of British forces from Iraq and Afghanistan and the release of Muslim prisoners from Belmarsh high-security prison in London.
Terror plot: Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah at the Beijing Olympics
Postings to the site and others like it are regularly monitored by the security services over fears that they are used to radicalise and recruit young British Muslims.
However, police sources have stressed that there is no evidence that there was any active plot.
Anti-terrorist officers are still holding the four other suspects and have travelled to Scandinavia as part of their investigations.
Justice Secretary Jack Straw, who is the local MP, is being kept informed about the investigation.
Reader views (13)
Ben - well Brown doesn't intimidate, beat and torture his opponents, ejecting farmers from land from those he sees as having no rights to, send the economy into hyperinflation, or kill his own people to further his own cause. Thanks for asking though.
Why do you say Brown is a dictator? If anything he's the opposite - backing down when his decisions are viewed as unpopular.
- Waldopepper, London
I agree with Squiz, there would be parties on the streets and very little remorse. What's the difference between Mugabe and Brown? Both dictators not wanted or voted in by the nations people.
- Ben, London, UK
Once again these Muslim terrorists have covered their tracks so well. Making their plans known on a Jihadi website and naming themselves Abdul Jihad and Mohammed Ali. You couldn't make it up. Wasn't it last month MI5 were claiming these buffoons were 'hard to spot'. Perhaps killing El Gordo was a last minute bid to put Islam back in our good books.
- Squiz, Islington
I don't believe this. If your aim was to undermine Britain and create instability the last thing you'd do would be to bump off this clown.
- Squiz, Islington
Contrast the handling of these young men with the light-hearted response of the FBI to the "knuckle-heads" caught with a few telescopic rifles in Denver. Is it the British police who should lighten up a bit, or is it the FBI being a tad happy-go-lucky?
- Blackstone, London
I thought most people at home and abroad, including many members of the Labour Party, wanted to get rid of Brown. I suppose its the way the deed is done which counts here.
- Neil, Gloucestershire, England.
No religion condones murder however people constantly use it as a façade under which to commit acts of violence because the people involved are inherently violent people - this goes for all religious nut jobs, not just Muslims.
Delphine, who would bother? Who would fly planes into the twin towers?
- Kitty, London
I just don't believe this story. I'm sure it's a plant. Just to make him sound endangered and brave. Who would bother with him?
- Delphine, Oxford
Sarah how does a noun denote racism? There's a plot to kill the PM and you're criticising the journalists? Are you an apologist for terrorism?
Enough double-think and new-speak, let the journalists report and you get back to knitting yoghurt.
- Phil, Margate, England
I think religion is the key factor to here, not colour, and the common bond is Islam time and time again.
- Brandon Thomas, London SW7
Plot to harm our Gordo? And thay arrested a man? Shurely shume mishtake. There must be at least 30m people who detest Gordo, how could they single only one out?
- Ethan, UK
Does it matter what colour he is? In fact if your going to insult us with racist reporting perhaps you would like to tell us what religion he is?...
I'm sure his reason for wanting to kill Brown is religion based not colour based.
- Sarah, london
Latest : Police have narrowed down the potential of further suspects to a small group of 40 million UK taxpayers.
- Big Andy, London
