Posted on 06/18/2002 3:35:04 PM PDT by knighthawk
PARIS: A Paris court on Tuesday ordered that a Pakistani national placed under investigation at the weekend for allegedly helping accused "shoe bomber" Richard Reid remain in detention, court sources said.
Ghulam Mustafa Rama, along with two Frenchmen, is being investigated on suspicion of having "conspired to prepare a terrorist act". One of the French nationals was placed in preventive detention on Monday.
Reid, 28, was caught with explosives in his shoe on an American Airlines jet from Paris to Miami in December, and has pleaded not guilty to charges in the United States of terrorism, attempted murder and attempting to destroy an aircraft.
Rama, who has lived in France for 22 years and runs a butcher shop, is suspected of supervising a support network for Reid in France and of recruiting Islamic militants in the country.
French examining magistrates can keep suspects locked up if deemed necessary for the investigation, and for serious crimes the period of preventive detention can last up to one year.
The two French suspects have said they were handpicked by Rama, who was returning from a trip to Pakistan when he was detained in April. In September last year, the two men allegedly visited a training camp in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir run by rebel group Lashkar-e-Taiba, a movement close to Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
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