October 16, 2001	Tuesday	Rajab 28, 1422

DUESSELDORF, Oct 15: Seven German students have filed lawsuits against a government sweep of data bases to find terrorist suspects, their lawyer said on Monday in the western city of Duesseldorf.

The students, a Jordanian, a Moroccan and five Germans from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, claim there is not “a suspicion of exceptional gravity” to justify such a sweep, their lawyer Wilhelm Achelpoehler said.

He said the first of seven lawsuits was filed October 8 in Duesseldorf.

A court decision should come within the next few days, Achelpoehler said.

German police began a nationwide sweep on October 1 of computer databases in a search for suspected terrorists in the wake of the September 11 attacks in the United States.

Police were hoping to snare so-called “sleepers,” suspected terrorists who live as ordinary citizens while waiting for their time to attack.

Databases examined included police registers in local administrations, registration lists in universities and insurance lists.

North Rhine-Westphalia was the only state to check out German citizens as well as residents from Muslim states.

The weekly magazine Spiegel said some 1.4 million people were to be checked in North Rhine-Westphalia. —AFP